think of it as a circle - extreme right and extreme left tend to converge as they go further out.
But I don't LIKE thinking of it as a circle; it's a TRAP. Again, the left-vs-right spectrum is mostly used to ask this question: "WHICH KIND OF DICTATORSHIP DO YOU TEND TO PREFER, AND WHICH KIND OF CONTROL FREAK WOULD YOU RATHER MAKE YOUR DECISIONS FOR YOU?"
DO check out why Valin responded that way at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1333435/posts?page=11#11 (above).