so i don't really identify with the term 'leftist' like it doesn't really mean anything positively, i have little or nothing in common with a lot of leftists
But then increasingly the Democratic party is appropriating the term 'leftist' to mean democrat/liberal, and so they call people to their left 'psuedo-leftist', the same with 'progressive' all while increasingly publicizing their 'moderate' position in relation to the 'extremist' republicans, filling the white house with Neocons etc.