Left and Right Politics
It is something that anyone who is politically engaged has heard before, "The far right politician..." or "The left leaning party". These terms are used excessively in modern politics, therefore it is very important that you understand what it means, where the terms came from, and why they are used to represent today's political scene. Believe it or not, I have spoken to many people who share interests in politics, and they throw around these terms all the time, but upon myself asking them, they cannot conretely define what left or right actually means.
Where The Terms Came From
The French Revolutionary era was where the terms Left-wing politics and Right-wing politics first originated. The reason for the terms to become used at all was the seating of the Ancien Régime (government/house of politicians) of France at that time. The aristocrats sat on the right, and the commoners sat on the left. So these terms evolved to mean so that right-wing politics refer to politics for aristocratic and royal interests, while left-wing politics refer to republicanism, socialism, and civil liberties. Generally, the terms left and right can be more understood in the context of progressive and conservative.
The Right Side
The terms have changed in definition ever so slightly since the Ancien Regime of France was overthrown. The right side, which no doubt represented and was in favor of the Monarchy that existed at the time, could be said to have been conservatives despite our modern definition of conservatism being out-right against dictatorships. The reason the definition is slightly different is because what we are conserving has changed. The conservatives of the French Revolution wanted to conserve the political system of the Monarchy, whereas conservatives of our time want to conserve our small government systems that we used to have in place 40 or so years ago.
Right-wingers generally strive for:
- Small government
- Little to no government intervention in the economy or into personal lives
- Minimum laws for maximum freedoms
- Less state-run programs (promotes private services)
- Nationalism and patriotism (promotes strong borders and heavy VETTING processes for immigration)
The Left Side
Similarly, for the those seated on the left of the Ancien Regime, who can be said to be progressives, were progressives because they wanted to progress away from the Ancien Regime system and into a more socialist, democratic, and state driven society. Obviously, the terms conservative and progressive change depending on the context of the society, and in our current time, conservative is used to represent those who want to conserve small government and liberties, and progressive is used to represent those who want to progress away from small government and into another system, usually a more socialist one.
Left-wingers generally strive for:
- Bigger government
- Command economies
- Government intervention in small business (minimum wage, occupational health and safety)
- More state-run programs (public schooling, public healthcare, food stamps and handouts)
- Globalism and anti-patriotism (promotes no-border and heavy immigration policies)
Now, my definitions are very basic and generalized. There are countless ideologies that combine ideas from both sides of politics, and they are best studied by yourself as they can be quite complicated. I have provided a general representation of Left and Right politics. Thanks for reading! I hope this was helpful to you, let me know if it was.
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