I interpret this as political. In U.S. politics left is generally synonymous with liberal and right is conservative
The context, from what I understand, is the typically right-wing 'Pull yourself up by your bootstraps' philosophy. It essentially asserts that everyone has the opportunity to succeed if they work hard enough. If someone is not successful, then they must be lazy.
Since he's talking 'a game pretty left of' that, the author is saying that he has a more liberal interpretation. The implication is that he knows not only lazy/stupid people work at McDonalds and believes the issue is more nuanced than that and that something previously stated is being taken out of context or misinterpreted.