It's a problem that the most visible "left" in the US is completely worthless on war and militarism. Antiwar Americans look right and see people like Rand Paul and Tucker Carlson doing something then look left and see AOC and Bernie doing nothing, who do you think they'll choose?
And of course this is because the so-called progressive Democrats are not "left" in any meaningful way, but your average mainstream American doesn't know that and perception is reality. The US is where antiwar sentiment is most important, and it's been buried on the left.
They're trained that Clintonites are "center-left" and AOC/Bernie are "far left", and anyone further to the left than them on foreign policy is demonized by these progressives as a Russian agent. This creates the very understandable impression that the entire left is pro-war.
When you've got Ilhan and AOC calling people who protest US proxy warfare at their rallies Russian operatives and antiwar leftists like Jill Stein branded as Kremlin agents, the message mainstream Americans come away with is that antiwar sentiment is only welcome on the right.
Again, I get this isn't true and there's lots of antiwar sentiment on the true left in the US, but nobody sees that left. It's denied any media presence or political validity; mainstream Americans don't know the difference between an anti-imperialist socialist and a Berner.
This causes antiwar Americans to drift to the right. I've watched it happen in real time with some of my US followers. I do my best to make the case for the left, but I'm just one voice amid a surging deluge of messaging they're getting that the real opposition is on the right.
Fair.
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