Politics > Politics-USA > Re: The Political Compass: Authoritarian Right, Libertarian Right, Authoritarian Left, Libertarian Left.
| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
19 Aug 2006 08:49:44 AM |
| Object: |
Re: The Political Compass: Authoritarian Right, Libertarian Right, Authoritarian Left, Libertarian Left. |
ClassWarz wrote:
The Political Compass: Authoritarian Right, Libertarian Right, Authoritarian
Left, Libertarian Left.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Compass
"A political compass or political diamond is a multi-axis model used to
label or organize political thought on several dimensions. They are intended
as an alternative to the originally French one-axis (Left versus Right)
model, which has been widely adopted over the past two centuries; see
glossary of the French Revolution."
This poster is Libertarian Left--we are the Progressives. The Authoritarian
Left (the Communists, some Socialists) is practically nonexistent in the
U.S. The Libertarian Right (the Ayn Rand folks) is waning fast because the
rise of the Authoritarian Right has thrown them into a state of confusion.
The Authoritarian Right is battling to secure complete national dominance
against fading resistance from the Libertarian Left and some minor elements
of the Libertarian Right. (There are several flavors of the Authoritarian
Right: the Bushite neocons are amongst the milder ones but they go all the
way down the spectrum to the Klan and the Nazis.)
Most modern day Corporatists have shifted from the Libertarian Right to the
Authoritarian Right. This is a rhetorical shift only; the Corporatists have
always been mostly Authoritarian Right in practice--out for money and power,
they make life tough for the working class.
ClassWarz
In spite of a lot of orientation models most of the people I meet are
all 'sort of in the middle-ists'; both democrats and republicans that
tend to vote the same way on common sensical issues.
Most of them also tend to be heavily influenced by what they see from
TV media... which is unfortunate because they are also mostly unaware
that their media sources have become heavily monopolized in recent
years.
I view the political universe as sort of a circle with the extreme
right authoritarians actually connecting with the extreme left
authoritarians at the bottom of the circle...
And that is what we see today; former hard leftists having joined with
the neo-cons to help implement authoritarianism. Power is corrupting.
PS: (imo) Libertarians are just a transitional stage of republicans.
When push comes to shove they almost always metamorphose into
republicans. What they don't understand is that republicanism has been
hijacked by neo-cons.
PPS: Most of the republiconned base consists of the hard fundies. They
constitute about 17% of the voting public - and are dedicated voters.
I keep hoping that they receive wisdom from above so that they could
identify evil, the next time, before they vote for it again.
.
|
|
| User: "Matt" |
|
| Title: Re: The Political Compass: Authoritarian Right, Libertarian Right, Authoritarian Left, Libertarian Left. |
19 Aug 2006 06:32:59 PM |
|
|
wrote:
ClassWarz wrote:
The Political Compass: Authoritarian Right, Libertarian Right, Authoritarian
Left, Libertarian Left.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Compass
"A political compass or political diamond is a multi-axis model used to
label or organize political thought on several dimensions. They are intended
as an alternative to the originally French one-axis (Left versus Right)
model, which has been widely adopted over the past two centuries; see
glossary of the French Revolution."
This poster is Libertarian Left--we are the Progressives. The Authoritarian
Left (the Communists, some Socialists) is practically nonexistent in the
U.S. The Libertarian Right (the Ayn Rand folks) is waning fast because the
rise of the Authoritarian Right has thrown them into a state of confusion.
The Authoritarian Right is battling to secure complete national dominance
against fading resistance from the Libertarian Left and some minor elements
of the Libertarian Right. (There are several flavors of the Authoritarian
Right: the Bushite neocons are amongst the milder ones but they go all the
way down the spectrum to the Klan and the Nazis.)
Most modern day Corporatists have shifted from the Libertarian Right to the
Authoritarian Right. This is a rhetorical shift only; the Corporatists have
always been mostly Authoritarian Right in practice--out for money and power,
they make life tough for the working class.
ClassWarz
In spite of a lot of orientation models most of the people I meet are
all 'sort of in the middle-ists'; both democrats and republicans that
tend to vote the same way on common sensical issues.
The vast majority of the American people are middle of the road.
Slightly conservative (gay marriage? No way) to slightly liberal (yes,
some form of a safety net is good). But really, unless something
impacts them directly, they don't tend to care.
Then there are the fringe elements. On both sides, I might add. They
are the ones that turn out heaviest for voting, contribute the most
money to political organizations, and have the strongest opinions.
Conservative right-wingers honestly believe that Bush is a great
President and that Clinton was the anti-Christ. The left-wingers
believe the same thing but with the names reversed.
The reality is, Bush is pretty stupid. Clinton was pretty arrogant.
Clinton presided over an amazing boom period of our history, primarily
because the Congressional right-wing was too busy trying to impeach him
to do any harm. The lesson? Our country does REALLY well when it is
left alone to its own devices. Bush, on the other hand, has taken a
direct hand in things (from the economical disaster of the Social
Security reform to the Iraq war) and has presided over a mess. Lesson
learned? Doubtful. Ronald Reagan really didn't accomplish much, but is
considered to be successfuly mostly because the country did reasonably
well when he was in office (his impact on the national debt
notwithstanding).
Oh, yes, I'm a liberal, I freely admit it. Once upon a time, I would
have been considered middle of the road. I don't back welfare, I think
people should have a safety net but earn their own living. I don't
believe corporations should have a free ride, but I don't think they
should have to compete unfairly either.
Most of them also tend to be heavily influenced by what they see from
TV media... which is unfortunate because they are also mostly unaware
that their media sources have become heavily monopolized in recent
years.
Sad, isn't it?
I view the political universe as sort of a circle with the extreme
right authoritarians actually connecting with the extreme left
authoritarians at the bottom of the circle...
The political universe is a pendulum. In previous times, it swung
fairly slowly from right to left. We had Prohibition, but we had the
Gay 90s. We had the Free Love of the 60s, right after the Red Scare of
the 50s. There are no real surprises here. What IS surprising is that
the pendulum is swinging so much faster these days. The reasonable
period of the 80s, where Reagan was balanced by a left-leaning Supreme
Court and Congress, was replaced by a left-leaning President and a
right-wing Congress in the 90s. Now, we have a right-wing everything.
You can guess where it is going, and the neocons are scared to death.
They know they are going to lose, and badly.
And that is what we see today; former hard leftists having joined with
the neo-cons to help implement authoritarianism. Power is corrupting.
Always true.
PS: (imo) Libertarians are just a transitional stage of republicans.
When push comes to shove they almost always metamorphose into
republicans. What they don't understand is that republicanism has been
hijacked by neo-cons.
Actually, they morph into conservatives. That's what libertarians are,
at their
core. And that's fine. I voted for a guy back in the good old days that
would be
considered a libertarian today. Bonus points if you can figure out who
he was.
Hint: He used to be a Republican, and I'm old enough to have voted for
Carter.
PPS: Most of the republiconned base consists of the hard fundies. They
constitute about 17% of the voting public - and are dedicated voters.
I keep hoping that they receive wisdom from above so that they could
identify evil, the next time, before they vote for it again.
Sadly, I doubt it. But a thought-provoking post. Thank you.
Matt
.
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
