Quote:Not to commiserate over what a pig the man is (calling someone a pig is presidential language now, so that's fair ball, right?). That's just easy. What's fascinating is the reaction when you advance the argument that Trump, judged solely on his actions, is the most left-wing president any of us has ever seen.

By people "on the left," incidentally, I don't mean small-l, bourgeois, reflexive urban liberals. I mean committed progressives; people who believe in collectivism over rugged individualism, in the replacement of social hierarchy with social equality, who advocate wealth redistribution and robust government intervention to restrain the predations of the market. Generally, these people also oppose government austerity and militarism and globalization.

They are generally well educated and serious. And they can be irritatingly self-righteous. Which is why it's such fun to point out that Trump has often been their objective ally.