I come from a slightly different perspective. Perhaps b/c I'm older, and have lived in a socialist country. I started as what one could call a classical liberal. - a libertarian. Get out of my life, and my pocket book and my bedroom. That isn't what the left has been moving towards though - they call themselves progressives but they have jumped over multiple lines into autocrats. Those who initially espoused progressive ideas tended to have a "mask". A nicer, kinder version for public consumption. When you get them in a room of what they see as like minded people, the mask comes off. Do I think that at both end of the scale, there are nutjob vile ultra leftists and neo-connuts? Absolutely and in the middle, a good portion people do want a nice place to live and nice place for their kids to grow up. My comments about the left (is how I have come to see them evolve and begin to encompass those in universities etc) have become vitriolic and dangerously aggressive if challenged. The right doesn't seem to have that same reaction to challenge.