Hard agree. I'm not from The States but lived there for a number of years. People there who call themselves left are usually closer to center or center right and seem to engage in extreme pearl clutching when exposed to anything even vaguely left of center.

I think part of the issue is decades of propaganda and government brain washing coupled with a deep seated ignorance of actual leftist politics. They know practically nothing about progressive policies and feel no need to learn as they believe they already know all there is to know.