The Left-Test

In a good essay on why the left hates Israel over on The American Thinker Richard Baehr lists an excellent test to determine whether someone is a liberal or a full blown leftist:

The left in this country includes large numbers of academics, journalists, human rights activists, environmental and animal rights activists, entertainers, and some church groups, women's groups, racial advocacy groups and unions. There are also liberals who are members of these same groups. I distinguish between leftists and liberals by one key test: how they feel about the country in which they live. If you tend to regard America as a primarily flawed, evil, unjust, racist country (or at least when Republicans are running it), and most importantly, believe that the US is the primary threat to world peace internationally, then you are a leftist, and not a liberal. Of course, many leftists are perfectly happy to be living here, amidst all their complaints about the country, and regrettably all too few Hollywood artists carried through with their threat to leave the country after the 2000 election.

That sums it up very nicely. The liberal and the conservative both love America as it is while still thinking that it could use some improvement. What they disagree on is the exact nature of the improvements.

The leftist, on the other hand, loves the nation that America could become if he and people like him were in charge and able to remake it into a completely different place than it currently is.