The missing left wing

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Consider this odd fact: If you use the Google search engine to look for the phrase "right wing" you come up with 2,490,000 entries. If you google "left wing," you get 1,050,000 hits. The phrase "right wing" is used 2.37 times more often than "left wing."

Why is that? One might expect a closer parity for two terms that describe opposing points on a political spectrum. Of course some entries don't have any political context, such as those describing the left or right wing of a bird or airplane. But I'd be very surprised if there are more than twice as many turkeys or airplanes with right wings only.

No, there is a linguistic and cultural bias that compels writers to refer to the "right wing" as a pejorative adjective while they simultaneously refrain from using "left wing" to describe the ultra-liberal side of the spectrum. For 80 years the American left wing has hidden behind more pleasing terms such as "progressive" and "liberal." Then, as the term "liberal" was overused as camouflage for extreme positions in the 1960s, it also became a pejorative. During the 2004 presidential contest Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., ran away from the term as fast as he could -- even though he was once proud to call himself a liberal and had the voting record to prove it.

It is only a "label" -- as Kerry insisted in one of his debates with President Bush? Other countries use more precise language. French politicians also call themselves "progressives" but it is commonly understood as a synonym for socialists. In Britain, the socialist tradition is simply called "the left." But in the United States, academics use the term "liberal" as a huge rubber band to stretch around a diverse menagerie of people that range from moderate Republicans all the way to extreme left wing Democrats. Some, such as Kerry, embrace positions alarmingly close to those of "social democrats" in Europe.

Liberal writers were once happy to condemn their opponents as "ultra conservative" when the simple term "conservative" was no longer sufficiently insulting in the 1980s. But of course the person who is "ultra liberal" is a much rarer breed. Maybe that is why the Google search matches 53,000 entries for "ultra conservative" but again well less than half or 23,000 entries for "ultra liberal." The ratio is amazingly similar, it seems again there are 2.30 times as many ultra conservatives and there are ultra liberals.

The "labels" in the United States do mean less than those in other countries precisely because U.S. partisans often find political advantage in making their positions as warm and fuzzy as possible with the emphasis on fuzzy.

There is a robust American left wing that can trace its roots to the English Fabian Socialists founded by writers such as Sidney and Beatrice Webb and George Bernard Shaw. It was transplanted to this country by literary heroes such as Jack London and Upton Sinclair about 100 years ago and inspired the formation of clubs such as the American Fabian Society and the Intercollegiate Socialist Society.

ISS dropped the word "socialist" during the Red Scare of the 1920s and took on different names as it split into various factions over the decades. ISS became the Student League for Industrial Democracy, Students for Democratic Action and, finally, Students for a Democratic Society at Port Huron, Mich., in 1962.

What's the difference between a "liberal" in the United States and a member of the socialist-inspired "left wing?" It's very hard to tell because the left wing has done a great disservice to more moderate and traditional liberals by co-opting the latter label as camouflage. Liberals of the 1950s were for noble goals such as an end to racial discrimination, helping the poor and support for the peaceful resolution of international conflicts based on democratic ideals of human rights in U.N. forums.

But the campaign for racial equality morphed into racial preferences designed to correct past injustice but carrying the seeds for future injustice to different people. The United Nations abandoned democratic values in favor of the lowest common denominator of bigotry embraced by General Assembly members, 20 percent of which are the most repressive regimes in the world. The extreme left pushed the welfare state beyond reason. Most tragically, the left embraced a presumption of guilt on the part of U.S. foreign policy in almost all human rights or freedom initiatives. This self-loathing of the United States was always part of the American left but not part of the more moderate liberal tradition after World War II. Liberal Democratic senators such as Paul Douglas of Illinois, Thomas Dodd of Connecticut and Henry Jackson of Washington were strong supporters of spreading democracy and resisting all forms of totalitarianism abroad.

The reason one finds more than twice as many references to "right wing" or "ultra conservative" on Google is that a huge majority of liberal writers, reporters, pundits and academics are too uncomfortable describing themselves or close friends as "left wing" or "ultra liberal" even though many of them are.

They believe in the supremacy of the benevolent state over the individual and that liberal elites can govern the rest of us better than we can. They see no distinction at all between society at large and the role of government in society. They believe that government with its monopoly on the use of force and coercion, rather than voluntary persuasion, is the ultimate engine for social reform. Traditional liberals love the United States and are just as patriotic as traditional conservatives. But the illiberal left wing in the United States is intolerant of dissent on the campus and clings to a pathological default position that the United States is not a beneficial agent for good in the world.

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(Mark Q. Rhoads is a Republican former state senator from Illinois.)

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(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)