> In both cases, you have authoritarianism and statism differing only by sentiment and temperament.

We certainly agree there! - those tendencies are not exclusive to either end of the political axis.

One of the fun truths about leftists is that we disagree with each other as vigorously as we do with folks from the other side of the aisle: there are many forms of leftism, and they are certainly not all authoritarian or statist. In some strains of leftism, there is no role for the state at all; in others, opposition to authoritarianism is a primary concern.

I am sure that from a conservative viewpoint the other side looks like one big undifferentiated mass of crazy people, but from where I sit, the Democratic party looks like a fundamentally centrist institution which mostly prefers business-as-usual, occasionally proposing small tweaks in the direction of slightly softening the rough edges of the system when that will make the big donors happy. Leftists describe this as "liberalism". Voters may call for radical change from time to time, but the party never gets around to doing anything about it.

> probably not nearly as far left as you imagine

I am not sure how you can get any further left than libertarian socialism.