Thank you, Bill. You probably aren’t going to believe that my undergraduate degree from a major university was in Political Science, yet I never read about the aisles at the National Constituent Assembly! I can’t help but agree with so many of the posters here who seem to be saying that “left” and “right” have drifted far away from their original meanings, and that their use in political discourse is either confusing or intentionally ambiguous. Are we DOOMED to political discourse that uses terms no one understands or agrees on? Is this a good idea, as the world becomes more contentious and dangerous?
The classic example of this is that the MSM consistently referred to the hard-line Commies who attempted an unsuccessful coup against Gorbachev as "right-wing."
Right-wing Commies? Attempting a coup because the Leader was insufficiently Commie?
"Conservative" is another term that is meaningless unless you first define what is being conserved. Conservative Americans and conservative Iranians have perhaps less in common than any two groups on the planet.
Anarchism at one end and totalitarianism at the other isn't a much better model, IMHO - I say that because modern interpreters such as Hans-Hermann Hoppe have turned the entire continuum on its head. I'm gently suggesting that there is no continuum at all and that each political/economic system needs to be understood on its own. If I ever manage it I'll let you know. ;-)