"What those on the left may not realise is that people like me share some of their aspirations."
I don't think that's true, but I do think that many conservatives definitely do not - like everything lse, it depends on the aspirations
The left tended to play a large part in folk music because they regarded it as the culture of working people - "the voice of the people" "popular (of the people" featured heavily in their understanding of the culture they dealt with
Sharp was a socialist (of his time) - Topic was established by The Workers Music Association - left came with the job description
That never excluded those who weren't left - far from it.
EFDSS tended to be more establishment minded, yet even there the left had its champions
I worked with Nibs and Jean Mathews - Nibs was a somewhat conservative middle-of-he roader - Jean, who I adored, was a socialist
We all worked together with no problems

I believe that it was a similar situation in the U.S. - the initiali work in salvaging the songs was inspired by Roosevelt's 'New Deal', designed to tackle unemployment which dragged in the Lomax's who ran with the ball and inspired the revival there

One of the problems with the folk scene now is that it has been ripped
from its social roots and the term 'folk' no longer means anything to far too many people (in my opinion)

"The problem is that one of those wings, sometimes both, are not interested in getting said bird anywhere."
Nice insight
Jim Carroll