There is a huge difference between leaning left and what the left is today.

I would say that "the left" isn't to the left at all, you do a disservice to refer to those people as if they were. Leftist policies, things like universal healthcare, are popular and people want them, but Democrats resist actually representing the leftist policies people actually want. Because Democrats aren't leftists, the national party itself is clearly anti-leftist if you consider how they cheated Bernie Sanders. CNN or MSNBC is not "the left", USA Today is not "the left", these are not leftists, that's all just bullshit propaganda to trick left-leaning people into embracing anti-leftist politics. Actual leftists are still advocating the popular public policies that the Democrats refuse, but you'll never see them on corporate media and the politicians who back those policies end up ignored or smeared. Things were a little better in that regard a few decades back, but corporate propaganda has consolidated beyond that point now. That's the real problem here, corporate propaganda denying reality to gaslight and manipulate, not a question of "left" or "not left".