I used to sympathize with the Democratic Party, having been raised by Democrats who were both raised by Democrats. I’ll even admit, as much as it shames me to say so, that I voted to re-elect Bill Clinton in 1996. To my defense, I didn’t become a Christian until 1999, and I didn’t really grasp the reality of politics until shortly after. I was raised to believe that the Democratic Party championed the cause of the average Joe, and the economically downtrodden. I was taught that Republicans were all greedy rich people elected by greedy rich people. I was amazed to learn that I was taught wrong on both counts. I briefly threw a lot of support to the Republicans, and still occasionally vote Republican, but am proud that I have never voted for a Republican for President, and unless Alan Keyes runs again, I probably won’t in the future. That doesn’t mean that I would ever vote Democrat again though, I’d actually rather remove my own brain with a hand-powered drill and a pair of chop-sticks.
One thing that I learned about the political spectrum that surprised me, and that most people don’t realize, is that while the Nazi’s/Fascists are always regarded as the extreme right-wing, and the Communists are the extreme left-wing, the two are actually very similar and both are far left-wing. The Nazi party is the National Socialist party. They are anti-gun, anti-capitalist, and somewhat anti-religion. They are/were taught as being right-wing because while the Communists are staunchly ant-religion, the Nazi’s allow for some form of religion, as long as the people bend to the will of the State. Both, however, are socialist extremes.
So you didn’t know this, and now you’re going to say “well, the political spectrum is actually a circle. If you go far enough in one direction, you’ll end up coming back on the other side.” This is a mistake that stems from further ignorance. The United States, as it was created 228 years ago, was almost as far to the right as it gets. The Right is defined by its love of Freedom, Capitalism, and personal responsibility. It only works in a society that gets by allowing the people to govern themselves. The Left, on the other hand, transfers power from the people to the government, and sees Capitalism as unfair (or so they say).
An interesting article on the political spectrum can be found here. I don’t agree with it 100%, but it is definitely off in the right direction.
I think the main difference between Nazis and Communists was the nationalism of the National Socialists and the internationalism of the Communists (international socialists). I think that’s what made Communism such a threat to highly nationalistic Germans who believed that the economic theory of Marxism was sound (it took one of us to come up with it after all, as is the case with almost all pseudo-science).
Thomas Sowel is the man to read for having the political spectum deal straightened out, especially “A Conflict Of Visions”. Nice blog, BTW.
Okay, I was just google searching, cause to my shame, I just realized that I didnt know if it was republican’s or democrat’s that were conservative’s or liberal’s… I still don’t know… I really just think we could change the name, and just call them all liars… Patti
Republicans call themselves conservative and Democrats call themselves liberal.
I believe that Democrats lie when they say they are just looking out for the little guy, and Republicans lie when they say they’ll further X issue. They all just want power, and don’t care what they have to do to get it.
Vote Constitution Party!!