Two diametrically opposed groups of people, operating under two totally different definitions of “the enemy,” cannot unite in any meaningful sense.
By Adam Johnson, The Real News Network
Every few months—sometimes for sinister and ideological reasons, sometimes for just plain ahistorical and dimwitted reasons—a pundit comes along who thinks they’ve cracked the DaVinci code of class politics. “What if,” they ask us (as if the question has not been asked countless times before), “left and right unite to take on the elites”? The phrasing of the question can vary, but it’s invariably some version of the same claptrap. This take has a particular superficial appeal: What if the right and left could set aside their seemingly insurmountable differences and unite to take on these mysterious “elites,” or “those in power”? What if, indeed! On its face, the proposal sounds like something everyone can get behind, and it’s effective RT-bait:

The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left.
The choice is between normal or crazy.
It is time for a new generation of Republican leadership.
https://t.co/pmWGOwJyp8— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) February 8, 2023
Imagine if the right-wing and the left-wing got together to fight corruption. I know many on both sides will say that you cannot work with those monsters. And you must not be naive. Yes, I understand. But what if we got together just once to fuck the establishment?
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) July 22, 2023
There's a new generation on the right and they think very differently about corporate power. When that right and the left come together, we will break up our big and slothful monopolies like Disney. DeSantis isn't there yet, but it's coming. https://t.co/VQRN013pdX
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) July 29, 2023
It's time for open primaries and ranked choice voting. Join us at https://t.co/xpmdtGr94t pic.twitter.com/rOJu3OyvBA
— Forward Party (@Fwd_Party) October 5, 2021
"Left" and "right" are no longer useful terms to describe our politics. @mgurri and @Andrey4Mir have a better explanation: "postjournalism" and the battle between "center" and "periphery." I made this video to lay out their theories. Check my substack to watch the full video. pic.twitter.com/fDoGqrSata
— Leighton 明 Woodhouse (@lwoodhouse) November 5, 2021
Many on the anti-establishment left and right share antipathy for many of the same institutions of power.
Fortunately for those institutions, there's a culture war that keeps those two sides focused eternally on each other, ensuring they never unite against those power centers. https://t.co/gZ4jBg1jP3
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 31, 2023
Campaign 2024: Not Left Versus Right, But Aflluent Versus Everyone Elsehttps://t.co/EcepvmEclp pic.twitter.com/5HR0M93ZpG
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) August 9, 2023
This line is used primarily, though not exclusively, by two groups: (1) milquetoast corporate liberals and centrists embodied by Third Way and other Wall Street-funded front groups attempting to push the Democratic party even farther toward the center than it already is; and (2) right-wing “populists” of varying tendencies (third positionists, producerists, outright fascists). I’ve detailed the problems with Group 1 elsewhere, but I’d like to take some time to discuss this trope’s popularity with Group 2 and why those on the left—or anyone genuinely concerned with the plight of the working class and racial justice, however they define themselves—should be wary of this second group.
Recent Posts
Israeli Historian Ilan Pappé: Despite Ceasefire, Palestinians Still Face “Elimination, Genocide”
October 13, 2025
Take Action Now “I hope that the world will not be misled that Israel is now ready to open a different kind of page in its relationship with…
Who Will Defend Ordinary Working People Against Trump And MAGA?
October 13, 2025
Take Action Now How powerful can this movement-based opposition be? That depends on what the ordinary Americans being harmed by the Trump regime…
Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis
October 12, 2025
Take Action Now In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a…
Federal Judge Sides With Journalists, Protesters in Chicago Over Violent Tactics of Trump’s Federal Agents
October 11, 2025
Take Action Now “Individuals are allowed to protest,” the judge said. “They are allowed to speak. That is guaranteed by the First Amendment to our…