Which way does the left want it?

I don't want to make Joseph Nye the spokesman for the far left, but I'm starting to hear this more and more, so I'll use him as the example:

What a mess! Once again the extremists have prevailed, and capitalized on inept American policies. Bush's pressure for elections helped produce Hamas in the Palestinian Authority, Hezbollah in the Lebanese government, and his efforts to force regime change pressed Syria closer to Iran. (Italics mine).

I'll ignore the fact that the Palestinian elections were actually called by Abbas in an attempt to strengthen his political position. The point is this. For years, the left berated Reagan and Bush 41 for cozying up to dictators because they were "our assholes." Back then, the idea was that we were holding down the peoples of many nations and turning our backs on our own values by ignoring self determination with our support of dictators. Today, in some situations, we've swung much more towards the position the left used as a rhetorical club not that long ago, and they're bitching because we've done so. And some still complain because we aren't doing enough to open up Egypt and Saudi Arabia.