Left or Right? by Steve Hansen
I’ve paid attention to politics for as long as I can remember. So I always assumed that everybody knew and understood political terminology. But in the last several years, I’ve come to realize that a surprising number of people have aligned themselves with a group without knowing what that group’s core beliefs really are.
The terms “left-wing”, “right-wing”, “liberal”, “conservative”, “Democrat”, and “Republican” are thrown around pretty freely. Left-wing, liberal, and Democrat tend to be used interchangeably; the same could be said for right-wing, conservative, and Republican. But they’re not really synonymous.
Left/Right
Let’s start by explaining left vs. right. (Bear with me if you know this, it’s amazing the number of people that don’t.)
Imagine a line that runs from left to right and continues forever in both directions. At the far left, you have a society where everything is owned by the people, there are no societal classes, and there is no rule. All needs are provided to everyone by society. A perfect implementation of this type of society would be pure socialism. This type of society has never been achieved and sustained on a large scale. Communism is typically the result of a ruling party attempting to create this type of society through force by use of a totalitarian regime.
At the far right end of this line, society exists to provide for, and at the pleasure of, a single authoritative ruler or class/party. Everything is owned by the ruler or party, the people work to provide for the ruling class, non-conformity is outlawed, and all individual rights (including the right to freedom or life) can be taken away at the whim of the ruler. This type of society is typically classified as totalitarianism or fascism. Some examples of this might be the monarchy during medieval times, the Roman Empire, or Hitler’s Germany.
Obviously, neither of these extremes is ideal.
Liberal/Conservative
Liberalism is an ideology that attempts to strike a balance somewhere to the left of center on this line. Left uncontrolled, a true liberal society would eventually become a pure socialist (or more likely communist) society.
Conservatism, on the other hand, is an ideology that strives to strike a balance to the right of center of the line. Again, left uncontrolled, a true conservative society would eventually become a pure fascist society.
From an overly simplified point of view, Democrats tend to be more liberal and Republicans tend to be more conservative. But that’s all relative. In a socialist society, the point of view attributed to a Democrat could be viewed as quite conservative.
And that’s plenty to digest for today.
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