There are periodic assertions that "the left" is causing the problems in our country right now--homelessness, Democrats' ability to gain and maintain power, Trump's stint in the White House, etc.--but I can't find any evidence that the left has substantive access to the levers of power. They're not really "in charge" of anything. If they were, I wouldn't have read an MSNBC puff piece about how cool it is that some woman is paying 50% of her salary to live in a Seattle micro apartment this morning. At best some people further to the left have managed to move the Overton window a touch (or merely prevented it from sliding all the way right).
It sounds like a made up bogeyman to help people justify a slide toward accepting fascism in the name of comfort and protecting a shitty system in which they personally have thrived.
I think it's important for people who like to say they're into civil rights to remember that every great rights movement and every great leader in those movements always point at white moderates as the biggest obstacle preventing progressive change. Status quo isn't a solution, and neither is backsliding into some kind of police state. The left has solutions that require a serious buy-in, but would be effective. The opposition to the left only has to make sure shit doesn't work so everyone simply clamors for the paramilitary occupation force that is the US police system. Either way, you have clean streets, but only one of these models will get you one step closer to a Star Trek future in which all your needs are met and you can spend your time doing what interests you.