I'm trying to wrap my head around just what, exactly, the "Left" believes. I realize that we are all individuals, so a Leftist will vary person by person.

The other problem I have is that the Left vs. Right category system, as I seem to understand it in common usage, doesn't make any real sense to me. To me, the scale should be from absolute freedom to absolute bondage. By those measures, someone on the far right would essentially be an anarchist while someone on the left would support totalitarianism (except for them, of course.)

So to get back to my original point, the examples of Leftists as I see them in U.S. government, are a collection of politicians that want to be in total control of my life by limiting my speech, my right to self-defense, and my right of association. Is that what they really want (all in opposition to our Constitutionally-protected liberty) or do they just simply want the power to do what they want at my expense?