These gender ideologies and the application of positive discrimination are an affront to left position. Since more than a hundred years, the left strongest identification trait was the fight to end discrimination. When now discrimination is applied in the name of diversity, that can't be a left value. This is something else, and it comes from somewhere else.
I'm not saying the position does not exist, and I'm not saying the groups purporting them don't look like left groups. But talk with some communists or socialists. They can't get behind this. My point is that this gender movement is its own political/ideological thing, that has just a very small overlap with left identification markers. It uses their style, not more.
This is probably part of the usual problem, that the left-right distinction doesn't really capture the political landscape.
[1] http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/161217-paul...
[2] http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=0701-whitehea...
In Germany, with which politics I'm more familiar, it is similar: The political organized left (which is marginal) is for affirmative actions (in the form of quotas for women). The only organization speaking out against them which has some left traits is the (sadly mostly neo-)liberal party.
Interestingly, and that is maybe a good description of my point, the parties implementing quotas for women over here are not left nor progressive. It's the SPD, which is a conservative central party, and the greens, which is a conservative party which fought for environmental protection in the eighties. However, the one remaining left party is also for them. My point may be weak when applied to organized political parties, but I stand behind the ideological argumentation that it is an affront to left values.
If that was (still) a thing Hillary would've won in a landslide. There's a lot more dissent in the left than the right.
Are you saying that Bernie endorsing Hillary is proof that there aren't conflicting views within the Democratic party?
Are you saying that Ron endorsing Trump would've been equal to Bernie supporting Hillary? Qualifications and platform doesn't factor in?
Here's an example of GOP acting as a herd and DNC acting on policy:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-2...
It is a proof that that the Democrats knows where their real opponents are, and that is in the Republican party.
>Are you saying that Ron endorsing Trump would've been equal to Bernie supporting Hillary?
Pretty much, yes. Both have a non-mainstream and dedicated following. Both were screwed by their respective parties when they tried to get the nomination.
>Qualifications and platform doesn't factor in?
I'm not sure what do you mean by that, unless you are trying to imply that Ron Paul has a serious ideological foundation deriving from the Mises Institute and based largely on Murray Rothbard's 20th century interpretation of classical liberalism upon which the United States were founded in the 18th century, while Bernie Sanders is pushing USA towards the fate of USSR and other similar implementations of socialist ideas that always end in a disaster.
>Here's an example of GOP acting as a herd and DNC acting on policy:
I knew it's war-related even before I clicked the link. Unfortunately, the same doesn't apply in other areas.
It is a current left wing argument in the United States for "diversity".
It is an old argument that one's ethnicity determines one's personality. I can't say one that I support.
FFS, this story itself is a perfect example. Here we have a corporation firing an employee for 'wrong' speech - and the left is in full support.
That's a class issue, and the left has clearly sided with corporations over the working class.
Just to clarify: I do have some respect for some ideas of the class-based left, unlike for the identity-based one. Roughly speaking, I do agree (though for a different reason) with the idea that the intellectual property should not exist.
That's bullshit. Write a "manifesto" about how senior executive compensations are to high, the company should be taken over by the employees and that private ownership of properties is a crime. That's the REAL leftist position. Then send that manifesto out to thousands of employees on the company's internal mailing list and see how long you last.
People fail to see the point... Yes, there are many "leftist" positions. The above is one of them. The point is that expressing that position on an internal mailing list most certainly puts your employment in jeopardy. It doesn't matter what the position is (abortion, drug legalization, gay weddings, military attacks on civilians, foreign relations, ...), what matter is where you express it.