Ted Rall: Democrats Are Not “the Left”

Be reasonable.
Demand the impossible.

– Slogan of the Situationist movement,
Paris 1968

Along with David Tacey’s Edge of the Sacred, another book I’m reading while in Australia is Ted Rall’s What’s Left: Radical Solutions for Radical Problems.

In this his latest book, Rall blends incisive analysis with his political cartoons to present a “manifesto for left-wing politics in 2025.” Following is an excerpt.

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Democrats are not “the Left.”

The Democratic Party is not a Left party.

Many if not most Leftists can and do vote Democrat, but that does not make them Democrats. Nor does garnering votes from Leftists make the Democratic Party a Left or Left-leaning party. Nor does being more liberal than the Republicans make the Democrats a Left party.

There are leftists and there are Democrats. They are not the same.

You’ve been told the opposite zillions of times. Right-wing media loves to conflate the Democrats with the Left. Right-wing politicians constantly call Democratic politicians “socialists” or even “communists.” . . . [In reality] the Democrats are a capitalist party. They don’t want to change the basic economic or social systems. They want the class structure to remain as is. At their most radical, Democrats want modest reforms. If Democrats were 100% in charge of everything, the people who are rich today would remain rich tomorrow, the people who are poor today would remain poor tomorrow, and corporations would continue to accumulate more wealth and power at the expense of individuals. They agree with the Republicans about these things.

The Left is entirely different.

. . . So what is the Left?

The term originated during the early months of the French Revolution, when representatives who supported secularization and the replacement of the monarchy with a republic sat to the left of the speaker’s chair dais in the National Assembly. Over the following centuries the umbrella term “Left” came to include the union movement, socialism, certain varieties of anarchism and libertarianism, as well as the struggles for civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, pacifism, environmentalism and many other political orientations.

What do these movements have in common? Put simply, those who belong to the Left subscribe to the idea that everyone is entitled to the good things in life by virtue of existing, that human beings should all enjoy equal rights and opportunities and that the basic necessities of life like food, shelter, healthcare, education and transportation should be guaranteed by the government.

In this, the richest nation ever – albeit with the widest wealth gap – we have the resources to provide these essential goods and services to everyone who needs them. . . . If the Left were 100% in charge of everything, there would be no rich or poor; everyone would have equal access to everything. Giant corporations would not exist. No one would want for the basic necessities of life. . . . Everyone would be unconditionally entitled to [these necessities] by virtue of existing as a living, breathing human being.

. . . History is punctuated by periods of protest that reveal Americans’ yearning for a world with greater economic equality, a merciful justice system, increased individual rights and the prioritization of human needs over corporate profits: the Black Lives Matter demostrations and uprisings of 2020, Occupy Wall Street in 2011, marches against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the 1999 Battle of Seattle, etc., etc., all the way back to the women’s suffrage and abolitionist movements at the dawn of the republic. These leftist movements were ruthlessly crushed by state violence and marginalization by the media before, in some instances, ultimately achieving their goals. Whether successful or not, and whether they vote or not, the point is that the American Left – the real Left to the left of the Democrats – is important. We are a substantial polarity. We may be mocked and ignored and disrespected. But we exist. We are an untapped consumer market in the marketplace of political ideas, a sleeping giant that will surely be awakened someday.

The Democrats and Republicans keep pretending we don’t exist or that, if we exist, we don’t matter. Like disused streetcar tracks that keep reappearing as the asphalt used to pave them over continuously erodes, the fundamental human cravings for fairness and equality always reemerge.

. . . As noted above, Leftists can and often do vote Democratic. This is due to the two-party system. Most U.S. Leftists do not vote for a Left party – a party that they agree with – for numerous reasons. Left parties are not on the ballot. They are censored by the media, so their message doesn’t get out. Laws, including the constitution, are written to make it almost impossible for them to win. People don’t want to waste their vote on a marginal also-ran with no chance of success.

As things stand, these Leftists are steeped in the relentless political culture and propaganda of the Democratic-Republican duopoly. As a result, many of them do not – and cannot – distinguish their own politics outside this hegemonic paradigm. This is tragic, primarily because Democratic Party nonsense diverts attention and energy that true Leftists, non-Democratic Leftists at heart, could otherwise dedicate to the Left politics they genuinely believe in and support.

– Ted Rall
Excerpted from What’s Left:
Radical Solutions for Radical Problems
Adjy Publishing, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
An Interview with Ted Rall – What’s Left Podcast (May 24, 2025).
The Left Is Dead – What And Who Will Rise From the Ashes?: An Interview with Ted Rall – The Kim Iversen Show (April 26, 2025).
A Movement Beats a Party Every Time – Ted Rall (Creators, February 21, 2025).
The Philosophical Roots of the Green Party – Anarchist and Libertarian Socialist Influences – Samantha Hull (Emerald Praxis, June 3, 2025).
We Need More Independent, Working-Class Political Candidates – Nick French (Jacobin, March 25, 2025).
Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism – The Humanist Report (March 6, 2025).
Jill Stein and Kshama Sawant on the Fight the Rich Movement – Sabby Sabs (January 26, 2025).
Trump Is Unpopular – and So Are the Do-Nothing Democrats – Jeet Heer (The Nation, February 18, 2025).
If You’re a Democrat Annoyed by Outraged Voters, You Are Doing It Wrong – Norman Solomon (Common Dreams, February 24, 2025).
Dems Reportedly Angry That Progressives Are Pushing Them to Act Like an Opposition Party – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, February 12, 2025).
Ted Rall: “If I’m on Luigi Mangione’s Jury, He’ll Walk”; United Health CEO Killed Thousands for Profit – The Jamarl Thomas Podcast (December 14, 2024).
U.S. Presidential Candidate Jill Stein: This Two-Party System Is Jeopardizing America’s Future – Young and Profiting (August 20, 2024).
Ted Rall Interviews Green Party Candidate Howie Hawkins – TedRallToons (October 20, 2020).
Ted Rall on the Many Ways the DNC and Democratic Party Leaders Piss On and Disrespect Progressives – Rob Kall Bottom-Up Show (July 23, 2020).
Ted Rall: Hillary Clinton Is a “Disaster for the Democratic Party” – Newsmax (March 18, 2015).


UPDATE: How to Third Party – Ted Rall (Creators.com, July 11, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Ted Rall on What It Means to Be a Leftist in 2025
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• Eric Fernández: Quote of the Day – May 14, 2025
• Progressive Perspectives on Bernie Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” Tour
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• An Opportunity for Organizing Against Duopoly
• Building Solidarity on the Left
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• Breaking the Mold: Why Progressives Should Push for Marianne Williamson to Lead the DNC
• Inauguration Day Thoughts
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in the 2024 Election
• “A New Chapter of the Democratic Party Needs to Begin”
• What the Republican Party Now Stands For
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration
• Jill Stein: “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”
• Peter Bloom on the Unmasking of the “Democratic Charade”
• The “Green Smoothie” Option
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• When Democrats Undermine Democracy
• Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season
• “Americans Deserve Choices”: Jill Stein on Breaking Points – 4/30/24
• AOC Falls in Line
• The Cassandra of U.S. Politics on the “True State of the Union”
• Will Democrats Never Learn?
• “The Next Step Is a Green Step”: Cornel West Endorses Jill Stein (2016)
• Hope Over Fear: Voting Green


Opening image: Michael J. Bayly (Faces of Resistance: Images and Stories of Progressive Activism at the Turn of the Millennium, 1997-2006).