Far-right, far-left ideologies may overlap in some key areas

An NBC News exit poll following the 2025 New York City mayoral election reported that roughly 9% of those surveyed who voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 also supported Zohran Mamdani for mayor, a candidate backed by the Democratic Socialists of America.  

In a time when politics seem increasingly divided, this statistic raises the question: What do the far-right and far-left have in common?

“A lot of what we associate with the far right or the far left may not still be what we consider to be far left or be far right,” said Eric Fattor, assistant teaching professor of political science at Colorado State University. “So I think that may be part of what’s going on here, is that we imbue a little too much rigidity into the concepts themselves and don’t appreciate that people’s perspectives, oftentimes, are much more flexible and defy any kind of easy categorization.” 

The terms far-right and far-left may be ambiguous, but there are some key principles that unite groups on either side of the political spectrum. 

“Populism is basically a rejection of elitism,” Fattor said. “It says that elites do not have any claim on the right to rule and should not be given any special privileges in that regard.”

Some opinion leaders on either side of the spectrum asserted that their positions land on two sides of the same coin: populism. 

“I think we’re all realizing that the elites are, in fact, quite corrupt,” Fattor said. “One of the things that the Epstein files are revealing is that it seems to be that, at least in the United States and for much of the rest of the world, the elites are engaging in some pretty heinous behaviors. The elites are using their power to basically enrich themselves and to aggrandize themselves, and do all that while completely ignoring the struggles of regular people.” 

On the left, many oppose the existence of an elite class and instead prioritize working-class individuals. 

“The working masses in America are very much … people that I would say that I am absolutely for, and I think that those people should be prioritized,” said Brayden Albrecht, co-chair for CSU’s chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America.

Albrecht said they saw overlap between opposing political groups in prioritization of the working class, though, they opposed many of the methods used to further that agenda.

“That’s why we see someone like (President Donald) Trump pulling a decent amount of people by saying that they’re pro-working class,” Albrecht said. “Donald Trump ran on making groceries cheaper, which unfortunately we haven’t seen.” 

Although there are some similar principles between what people consider to be the left and the right, there are also clear fundamental differences.

“I am inclined as a leftist to say that the solution that we have, which is something other than capitalism, is the true solution, whereas a lot of people on the far-right like to scapegoat,” Albrecht said. “I don’t like making generalizations, but looking at historically far-right movements, they will scapegoat and out-group without actually addressing systemic barriers.” 

CSU’s chapter of the right-wing activist collective Turning Point USA declined to comment. Far-right conservatives do, however, tend to prioritize affordability, resulting in bipartisan legislation sponsored by lawmakers across the aisle.

“Maybe a couple of years ago, there was a bill in the Senate; I don’t know what it was exactly,” Fattor said, referring to the 10 Percent Credit Card Interest Rate Cap Act. “The two co-sponsors were Bernie Sanders, left senator, and Josh Hawley, a Republican senator considered a far-right, Trumpist senator from Missouri.” 

The relationship between the right and the left is complex and far from black-and-white, meaning the future could hold any number of changes.

“It depends on the crisis of affordability and the crisis of corruption,” Fattor said. “If those continue to fester, then of course I could see more cooperation between those on the left and those on the right. These are populist impulses, right? Cooperating to stop corruption, to address affordability, to address all the things that affect the lives of ‘regular people.’  The more that that doesn’t get addressed, the more angry the regular people will become and the more profound whatever apotheosis we’re heading towards looks like when it actually comes.”