First time I listened to the song, the message I got was that Cohen wasn’t exclusively attacking the right, and somehow completely sparing the left. He rarely (if ever) did anything so simplistic, as lot of his work tended to have a great deal more nuance than that.
Keep in mind that he also did the song “The Future” on that same album, and it is quite a scorching attack against what he saw as a lot of societal excesses, including the ubiquitous and easy availability of abortion: “Destroy another fetus now, we don’t like children anyhow, I’ve seen the future baby, it is murder!”
In his later years LC was most certainly a conservative. There are two documentaries where they visit LC at home and he has Rush on the radio. He had enough of the liberal BS.
I have that album and it's one of my favorites. He was a brilliant song writer that made you want to listen to the lyrics and the message rather than just the songs......
As for "Democracy",
I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene
He loves the U.S. and knows what it means to the rest of the free world.
I found this on the internet and it sums it up perfectly:
At a time when the US is in more danger of foundering than ever before, Cohen’s words are the perfect anthem for these times: Sail on, sail on / oh mighty ship of State, we’re dreading this voyage, not knowing if we’ll we make it to the shores of need / past the reefs of greed / through the squalls of hate.
Cohen was a well known anti-communist... He mocks them in Beautiful Losers, he escapes from them in Cuba, and he carries a gun into dangerous places. The guy was NOT a liberal wimp:
https://i1.wp.com/allanshowalter.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/chelsea22.jpg?w=700&ssl=1
