[dabluecaboose]

I specifically used the phrase "American Left" to try and head off this trite quip.

I was referring, in general terms, to the left wing of mainstream American political discourse without narrowing it down to just "Democrats". I was trying not to trigger the waves of "Ackshyually karl marx says under no pretext" comments that one usually gets.

[anigbrowl]

Then why not just say 'Democrats'? There's a large political community to the left of the Democratic party that is underrepresented electorally, as has been demonstrated at the ballot box over and over. Flattening everything together is an over-simplification.

[dabluecaboose]

Well, clearly I should have just said Democrats, although my thinking at the time was that the comment would appear too partisan and trigger reflexive negative reactions. Clearly that happened regardless.