[jackbob]

I don't think of leftists as statists in the slightest. But yes, most are easily manipulated into forming alliances with, and often becoming short term anti-statist, statists. This is do in part to a reaction to conservative rhetoric. They do not view conservatives as being rationally or honestly, pro-individual and pro-liberty, but rather as working for, or being manipulated by, the power elite and pro-establishment people. An often used term is "conservative lackey." Who they also view as being corrupted or just plain anti-human rights, and thereby anti-individual rights.

Interestingly, I would agree that many leftists will seek to make government take on the 'role of altruism' and "dispense cosmic justice." But I don't envision them erecting any kind of government or any thing else for that matter. Leftists tend to bring down, rather than build up.

I do not think a 'lets just get along' strategy will ever work with them. It is my opinion, the only thing that will work with them, is a continual outright confrontation of the statists who manipulate them, right on the leftwing stage itself. But to do that, libertarians will need to take on additional burden. That burden, to use Pete Seager's phrase, is the burden of 'tadegedy and stratics.' Something the right looks up to leadership for, while the left discusses and argues it themselves at the bottom.

[Yardstick]

I don't think of leftists as statists in the slightest.

Well, it seems to be that leftists are functionally statists, except for some tiny fringe that actually may be anarchist or minarchist. But who are these fringe people and where do you find them?

The right has a very visible group of anti-statists in the patriot and constitutionalist crowd, and also in the right-leaning libertarians. I don't see many truly anti-statist leftists. Most of the "anarchists" you see are just stone-throwing statist socialist punks.

How many people on the so-called left would actually fall on the left end of the left/right scale if you label the ends "statist" and "anti-statist" (with anti-statist on the left), as you seem to do. I think you'd end up with more people conventionally identified with the right falling towards the left end of the scale.

And how can leftists be anti-statist if they would approve of a government that forces altruism on people and metes out cosmic justice? And why wouldn't they seek to create such a government? Is the left dependant on the right to create governing structures? Can the left even exist without the right?

It seems to me that the leftists you describe may exist only in theory or folklore. By your definition, leftists are anti-statists, but by your description of their beliefs, they can't be anti-statists. Could it be that you just wish leftists actually had an anti-statist core?