@Tricia
@Doug

Good post! Just a couple of observations that I expect will help make you a bit more hopeful.

The term “Left” and “Right” do not actually mean anything. There is not a dime’s worth of difference between Nazis and Communists. There two parameters we need to consider to help us understand the spectrum over which government ranges.
1. Government control over the individual. If government has no control over the individual, we have anarchy. If government has complete control over the individual, we have a totalitarian state like Nazi Germany or Stalin’s USSR. To have a government that serves the people, we must give the government the power to prohibit wrongdoing by individuals and organizations.
2. The purpose of government. Because this parameter is difficult to conceptualize, it causes the confusion that leads us to think the terms “Left” and “Right” are meaningful. Surely, we think the Nazis’ notions of racism distinguish them from the Communists’ notions of class warfare. However, consider how the concept of Intersectionality combines both ideologies. Then explain that.

We define the purpose of government based upon what we believe is the purpose of life. If we believe that we MUST all share the same purpose, then we use the government to nationalize the purpose of our lives. If we believe government is absolutely necessary to fulfil life’s purpose, we need a theocracy. If we think government has nothing to do with our life’s purpose, then a secular state works just fine.

These two parameters, government control over the individual and nationalizing our understanding of the purpose of life, do not operate independently of each other. I think that is largely because of convoluted thinking. That is, we constantly struggle over individual rights and too much religious influence of the government because we confuse the issues. Sometimes some of us confuse government give-away programs with the protection of individual rights. Sometimes some of us demand that the government enforce our religious beliefs on the public in the sincere belief government has the power to make others share our beliefs. Hence, we can end up with a situation where people demand that a secular government redistribute our nation’s wealth as if charity is not based upon a religious belief and the notion government can love us does not require a theocracy.

Where can Conservatives and Anti-Marxist Liberals find common cause? The term “Liberal” is not well defined these days, but it safe to say that any Democrat who is not ready to accept a Marxist regime is an anti-Marxist Liberal. Thus, the problem for the Conservative is figuring out what it is about Marxism that turns off Liberal Democrats. There is something, but it is not always easily discerned.

Almost all Americans believe that we each have the right to run our own lives. Marxism denies that belief. Socialists argue that we can have it both ways, that we can have government giveaways and still run our own lives. Conservatives must quietly explain to Anti-Marxist Liberals that the differences between Marxism and Socialism are more imagined than real. Both Marxism and Socialism require giving our public officials too much power. When we give the government enough power, our public official can then control us, and there is nothing Liberal about that.