Just an interesting observation I've noticed about the whole evolution of politics over the last 20 years.
Twenty years ago, the left side of American politics had more or less two faction, the libertarian socialist sorts and the more progressive conservatives sorts (although, they wouldn't call themselves conservatives, but liberals). Both of these sorts lived in relative harmony through the 90s (probably not so much in the 1960s and 70s), but the second Gulf War created a massive split. So much so, that the much larger progressive conservative faction labeled the libertarian socialists as right-wingers because they were in favour of the war against Iraq - not seeing or ignoring the very different motivations between the libertarian left and the Bush Conservatives - I'll explain that below.
To differentiate between the other "libertarians" - the right-wing sort. The right-wing libertarians are mostly isolationist and satisfied that they have the libertarian rights when many others don't; while the leftists are more internationalists and want to see rights for all humankind. The Bush Conservatives were seen as capitalist imperialists - an extension of Reagan Neoliberalism.
To narrow this down a little further into something people can grasp: Christopher Hitchens was the major voice on the libertarian socialist side. Now, speaking of Hitchens, I believe he was more of a straight up socialist prior to the Romanian coup. He was in Romania at the time it happened, saw the effects of the before and after. He was later anti-Gulf war in the beginning, but then went to Iraq, and spoke with the socialists among the Kurds, and learned of their struggle, and of the atrocities of Saddam Hussein. That's when Christopher Hitchens became the major voice of the libertarian socialists. And that's also why, when George W Bush invaded Iraq, he supported the ousting of Saddam Hussein, he supported the destruction of all the tyrannical regimes. And the majority of the left saw Hitchens as a traitor, and even insane; he warned of Putin, how Putin and that regime was a tyranny against the Ukrainian people.
Bottom line, after Hitchens's death, there was a dramatic shift on the left side of politics, and his brand is quickly becoming the dominant brand of the Democratic Party. A brand that, 20 years ago, was seen as turning their backs on the left because they were misled.
I wonder how this sudden shift occurred?
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