In Europe, it was just " Léon". 
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Thank you for illuminating things. What were the “New Left” positions that did such damage? I lived through the '70’s but never understood it.
Ecch. History repeats itself.
I worry that the “new” party might instead keep the Democratic name, thus relegating progressives/liberals to something else: small, unpopular, looked-on with suspicion, and unsuccessful.
Again…exactly what they’ve already done. You’re suggesting a future event that’s already happened…
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Well, in general, the groups that made up the New Left are, essentially, the sources for many of the negative stereotypes of radicalized leftists that still culturally persist now:
- the “cares more for animals than people” environmentalist
- the “radical animal rights” activist
- the “economy destroyer” environmentalist
- the “elitist suburbian who doesn’t know anything about nature” environmentalist (and etc. in environmentalist stereotypes)
- the “spits on soldiers and calls them babykillers” war protester
- the “man-hating” radical feminist
- the violent radicalized student (the Weather Underground bombings in particular)
- the well-meaning but ultimately ignorant, elitist, and privileged social reformer
and other such negative stereotypes of liberals cherished by many American right-wingers at present.
However, while not even a large minority, let alone a majority, of New Lefters actually fulfilled such stereotypes, the minority that did embrace such extremism ended up getting their associates painted with the same brushes, typically via media attention (journalists looking for singular extreme examples to scare people with, and such). It only took one overenthusiastic idiot breaking into a lab and destroying research, or throwing bombs, or spiking unmarked nails into trees, or [insert radicalized activity] to taint the rest by association, and there were more than singular idiots.
This is one of the ways in which the New Left parallels the Tea Party, actually. While not all Tea Partiers actually fulfill the cherished stereotype of racist, short-sighted, personally selfish, reactionary authoritarians (although certainly enough of them do), the actions of the most vocal and radicalized members of that group taint the rest by association. However, the parallel breaks in how there has not been a wholesale rejection of their attitudes and tactics by the Republican Party in general; this stands in contrast to the general rejection of the New Left by the Democratic Party of the 1970s (2nd Wave Feminism actually formed in reaction to the systemic sexism in the New Left, to give an example).
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And that’s another weird thing. Some of the surrogates are paid by the networks, some by the campaigns. At the very least, they need a disclaimer at the start of each segment with these people stating who’s paying them to shill for whom.
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Thoughtful breakdown. Makes a lot of sense. Thank you!
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Not a problem! Any other questions? 
(and should we split this off as a separate thread?)
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I think I’m sated on the subject! Thanks again.
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