My conclusion on observing the left in the west really comes down not to ideology but to class. The left under their guise to 'help the disenfranchised" will invevitably pave the way to totalitarianism. all movements of liberation have offered the masses the same: liberation from tyranny, a new social order where the new man will be freed from the tyranny of servitute, history, class, race, etc.
But the 'struggle' is never ending. the war of liberation is perpetual. the left is always preparing for war and as a result those who do not support the movement are branded as enemies of the revolution and so on. Then the cycle of tyranny continues.
What the left despises is a free citizenry that left to it's own devices, will not follow the perscribed marxist plan. Thus they find refuge in institutions such as the judiciary, media and the academia just to name a few, that is at arms length of the democratic process. Offering them leverage to push through an agenda that may not be accepted in an open ballot. Abortion, gay marriage, stem-cell research and so on.
I suggest you pick up Robert Bork Slouching's Towards Gomorrah, The Theory of Moral Sentiment by Adam Smith. Anything by Locke & Voltaire just to name a few. Hayek is part of the same tangent of voices as others that warn us again and again that tyranny lurkes around the corners of history.
Voltaire and Hayek? Did you forget Comte?
You write very well and I agree with all of your points. Thanks for the reading recommendations!
BTW, being Canadian, how do you suggest we derail the national health care train that is coming around the bend?