Free Republic

This is a short dissertation on the Real political spectrum, Each step of the way will be confirmed by the dictionary definitions of the various political ideologies and how they relate to the spectrum. In order to properly set it out in a logical manner we need to base it on the metric of governmental power since this should be the clearest method of distinguishing where the ideologies fall on the spectrum. 1. Government Control scale. For the sake of simplicity we will use a scale of %0 to %100 with zero for no governmental control and ranging up to...

We all are familiar with the political spectrum, that hypothetical horizontal line on which we find our ‘point’ – our personal political ideology. The principle is basic: left is liberal, right is conservative. But while the standard spectrum is still valid as a foundation, in reality it isn’t a flat line at all.

It's not unusual for Bill Maher to accuse his ideological opponents of being flat-earthers. But he took the concept to a new extreme over the weekend in his analysis of history and the political spectrum. According to Maher, when you go too far to the Left, you end up on the Right. “Both [the Russian and French] revolutions got hijacked by the right-wing – and the Iranian Revolution,” Maher added. However, Maher explained that you could argue the Russian Revolution was “hijacked by the left-wing,” but due to the nature of it being that far left, it was really...

The classic 20th-century political spectrum is gravely flawed as a depiction of the range of philosophical opinion. The Traditional Political Spectrum The common depiction of the political spectrum traditionally shows communism at the left end, fascism at the right end, and less extreme political systems at various points in between: This depiction of the spectrum, and its nearly universal acceptance as a self-evidently accurate framework, has had a number of adverse corollary effects on political thinking and discourse. Because tyranny is found at the extremes of the spectrum, the socially and politically comfortable place to reside is near the center....

Von Brunn is no "right-winger," and he is certainly no conservative. He's a hateful and misguided human being, and labeling him as a "right-winger" is nothing more than a cheap and tasteless political ploy to discredit conservatism. To assert that fascism falls on the "right" side of the political spectrum is to falsely suggest that the political "spectrum" isn't a spectrum at all, but a flat line. Fascism no more falls on the Right than libertarianism falls on the Left. Allow me to provide a visual to simplify things for our liberal comrades: http://conservativebrawler.blogspot.com/2009/06/brunn-and-political-spectrum.html

MOST ORDINARY PEOPLE do not fit very neatly into any political category and may hold to a mix of views that include what would usually be seen as both Leftist and Rightist ideas. Among professional politicians and academics, however, there is generally a clearer polarization. So what is it that makes any given view "Rightist" or "Leftist"? In contemporary North American terms, what is it that makes one an archetypical "liberal" or an archetypical "conservative"? What is a Leftist or a Rightist position on any issue? The division obviously is real and the demise of the great icon of Leftism...