http://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Visions-Ideological-Political-Struggles/dp/0465081428
Read this, you’ll have a far better understanding of the situation than you do today.
(Jefferson was closer to accurate, but your wife has a facet of it)
I was poking around and found this guy he gave a little talk about how the leftist think and is on track with the Utopian view. I thought he made some very good points on the actual thinking process such as how the left strive to indiscriminate.
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/ev030507a.cfm