Thursday, July 9, 2009

Leftwing vs Rightwing vs liberal vs conservative vs moderate vs progressive...

I was reading this article on Progressive Republican about the terms that get thrown around. I liked it a lot, so I'm going to paste much of it here. Basically, the author, William Golden, is tired of labels being thrown at the other side and back as insults. Especially when "liberals" or "progressives" are labelled as "left-wing" and "conservatives" are called "right-wing"...

Here are his definitions. I think I agree with them:
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Left-wing and Right-wingers often sound like liberals and conservatives but are not afraid to trample truth in order to achieve their political goals. “Propaganda” is often too strong a term to even begin to describe the logic and the veracity of what passes as political discussion from both ends of the spectrum.

Liberals and Conservatives both have principles and represent what is best in America. They just disagree. They may even see truth differently but they both try to put America first. America is not a victim when these two meet — preferably over a beer or some other wholesome American pasttime. America is blessed because at the end of the day we all, liberal and conservative alike, are challenged in our views and there wisdom and answers from both.

A Moderate is absolutely the finest blending of red, white and blue. Moderates are perhaps the most practical of all Americans — their focus is on consideration of the facts and selecting the best solutions. Unlike liberals and conservatives they seldom have the hurdle of having to get past their pride to get on with getting on to finding an answer. Unfortunately perhaps, being a political moderate does not work everywhere in the USA and the result is that moderate politicians are often caught crossing the street when the light turns against them. God bless them.

Progressives are made up of liberals, moderates and conservatives. A progressive will normally claim fondness for one of the aforementioned political outlooks. The two greatest differences between progressives and their other American kinfolk is that they are proactive, rather than reactive; and they live in the land of ‘why not?!’ Progressives sometimes share the same challenges that moderates do, except they’ve figured out how to run like hell across the street when they see the lights change.
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I like these definitions. Anyone want to add to them?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.
Sound familiar?
-- Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, 1848

Communist: See liberal
Liberal: See communist; anti American

rockync said...

I'd like to add just one more:
"American - all of the above."
and if we could all just keep that in mind...

Jen R said...

ANYG'sV:

So you honestly, truly believe that a third or so of the people in the United States are un-American Communists?

Or is that just blog BS?

Sandy said...

I agree with James that these are pretty good definitions.

James' Muse said...

New York Guy: I'm not sure what you're trying to get across here.

If you're trying to immply that liberals are communists, then one could respond with the equally ridiculous claim that conservatives are fascists. One cannot judge an idealogy solely on the extreme form of it.

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

"Deluded right wing fool" is synonymous with the New York Guy.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I really like these definitions. I think they are pretty good.

Liberal/Conservative is fine. Left wing or Right wing tends to be thrown around too much by those that don't even know each other.

I guess by these definitions I could be considered a moderate. I always find myself somewhere in the middle between conservative and liberals. I guess the most appropriate one would be conservative leaning moderate????

Maybe that is why I can see common ground with both conservatives and liberals in just about anything.

dmarks said...

I don't like the Progressive one. I've never seen a usage of it where it is not used as the opposite of "conservative". Also, it is used as a replacement for "liberal" by those who view the "liberal" word as lacking or somehow gained a negative connotation from too many years of being used as a pejorative by conservatives.

dmarks said...

Now, New York Guy's list. Some of these fit the Obama administration, such as #5 and #7.fitting the bank and auto take over.

But so many have nothing to do with anything. Improving the soil?

And is the abolition of child labor even controversial?

James' Muse said...

I think New York Guy was trying to say that Obama is Marxist, which is old & tired, and completely not true. Just because Marx gave some suggestions that parallel some of our solutions doesn't make our current President a communist. I've also heard right-wingers (which is appropriate for people like NY Guy) call Obama a Hitler...because he's popular and speaks well.