COMPLETE VANITY -- How did Dem's get the "left" and the Pubs get the "right"?

none ^ | tonight | me

[Michael Barnes]

Just curious. How is it that Republicans/Conservatives get the term the "right", and/or, the Democrat's/liberals get the term the "left". Did one get a term first and the other simply became the obverse/opposite?

[Michael Barnes]

I think I have heard about this before, but for the life of me, cannot recall the reasoning behind the "left/right" mantra..Any input would be appreciated.

MB

[Michael Barnes]

Not sure if the topics are correct..Please don't banish this to never-never land to quickly??

;-)

[NovemberCharlie]

It goes back to the early days of the French Revolution. The conservative royalists who wanted to keep the monarchy in some form or another sat on the right side of the assembly, while the radicals who wanted to do away with the king sat on the left.

[annyokie]

Read David Horowitz' "The Politics of Bad Faith"; it explains it all.

[vbmoneyspender]

From the French revolution. In the assembly that was created after King Louis XVI lost his head, the hardcore revolutionaries sat on the left of the assembly and the more conservative elements sat on the right.

[mrsmith]

Blame it on those Frenchy folk

[dogbyte12]

Wild guess it is from the bias in the western world with right handedness. You are in the right for example. Righteousness. It would logically follow that those who want to conserve and preserve, would be described as those who are "right" or "righteous", instead of those who veer off to the left.

But, it does change in meaning. The Tories were conservative rightists, and the Founders were leftist liberals.

If we were to actually keep holding to his analogy, if the decay of the 60's, kept at it's pace for say 100 years, and you wanted to change it, that would make you a liberal.. while those who wanted to preserve moral decay would be conservative. Can be confuzzling.

[MikalM]

The seating arrangements of the French 1794 assembly, to be precise.

[Dog Gone]

The original term was "right and wrong".

We were put on the right, and what was left was left.

[CMailBag]

It used to be RIGHT and WRONG.
Perhaps we should ask how WRONG turned into LEFT.

[Revolting cat!]

Damn Frogs, again! I wanted us to be left not right! Can we switch?

[Reactionary]

"From the French revolution. In the assembly that was created after King Louis XVI lost his head, the hardcore revolutionaries sat on the left of the assembly and the more conservative elements sat on the right."

You are correct.

[Revolting cat!]

"You're right, I'm left, she's gone..."

[Michael Barnes]

Kinda spurs another question. How are the "seating" arrangements in the house/senate determined? Who sits up front, and who to the rear? And on what side of the "isle"..Is it done by state Population? Party? To be honest (and I know, these are lame questions), I have never really paid any attention to the meaning behind the mantra.

[this_ol_patriot]

bar sinister

Sinister \Sin"is*ter\ (s[i^]n"[i^]s*t[~e]r; 277), a.

Note: [Accented on the middle syllable by the older poets, as Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden.] [L. sinister: cf. F. sinistre.] 1. On the left hand, or the side of the left hand; left; -- opposed to dexter, or right. ``Here on his sinister cheek.'' --Shak.

My mother's blood Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister Bounds in my father's --Shak.

Note: In heraldy the sinister side of an escutcheon is the side which would be on the left of the bearer of the shield, and opposite the right hand of the beholder.

2. Unlucky; inauspicious; disastrous; injurious; evil; -- the left being usually regarded as the unlucky side; as, sinister influences.

All the several ills that visit earth, Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth. --B. Jonson.

3. Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest; corrupt; as, sinister aims.

Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts. --Bacon.

He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts. --South.

He read in their looks . . . sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself. --Sir W. Scott.

4. Indicative of lurking evil or harm; boding covert danger; as, a sinister countenance.



Hehe kind of weird, no?

[Michael Barnes]

heh-heh...

[Michael Barnes]

thanks for the input..And for the reading referral...

[Revolting cat!]

"Mr Unix, you ask too many questions!"

[Criminal Number 18F]

On the French revolution, the first national assembly called the Estates General (1789) had the delegates divided into three Estates, which all met in a single room. The First Estate were the nobles -- they sat on the right. The Third Estate were the commoners, in point of fact, revolutionaries; they sat on the left. (The Second Estate was the clergy of the established Church).

This only lasted a couple of months before the Left murdered most of the Right, and then large parts of itself. But it has had a lasting impact on political speech!

The seating arrangements for an ephemeral French Government gave rise to the terms we still use today for political sides. (Short-lived is normal for Franch governments. Since then they're on their fifth republic, with two Empires, another Monarchy, and a period of Hitler-worshipping collaboration thrown in for spice).

More on the Estates General of 89: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/hub/A863048

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[keats5]

We got it from Ecclesiastes 10:2

The heart of the wise inclines to he right, but the heart of the fool to the left.