Timeline for How do you explain "Right" and "Left" politics to a child without bias?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
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| Jan 11, 2013 at 8:56 | comment | added | Viliam Búr | Definitions of Left and Right are mostly rationalizations. Reality is: Some people want something. Politicians realize they could gain votes by promising it; unless it alienates their existing voters. So if the idea seems compatible with the other ideas of the party, it is added to the party line. Thus clusters of compatible ideas are created, partly by similarity, partly by historical accident. Then ideologues try ex post facto to explain why these ideas should belong together. Sometimes there is a reason, but sometimes it's an accident. Let's not try to explain what really does not exist. | |
| Jun 15, 2011 at 20:21 | comment | added | DA01 | Keep in mind the advertised beliefs of a party rarely translate to actual actions. There's a lot of do what we say, not as we do in politics. | |
| May 2, 2011 at 18:29 | comment | added | cabbey | -1; This doesn't really answer the question. "how do you explain ... to a child...." This just attempts to explain the differences. | |
| May 2, 2011 at 5:20 | history | edited | tylerl | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 2, 2011 at 4:41 | comment | added | philosodad | -1 for "Believes that the government and regulation should be less involved in the lives of the people" because this is objectively false. The political right believes that the government should be involved in everything from people's sex lives to religion (eg, the Ten Commandments in a courtroom). They believe deeply in the redistribution of wealth in the form of--for example--tax breaks for oil companies, which seriously distort the energy market. | |
| Apr 29, 2011 at 11:35 | comment | added | user420 | Additionally, I have only ever heard the idea that "left" equals "big government" come from the mouths of "right" people. It is a misinterpretation of common "left" agenda. Again, there are plenty of aspects of government that "rights" support increasing, that "lefts" want reduced (military being a prime example). | |
| Apr 29, 2011 at 11:32 | comment | added | user420 | I'd have to disagree with the comments about "right" people believing that government and regulation should be less involved in the lives of the people (see my answer for an example that contradicts that, and there are a number of others). I'd also have to disagree with "lefts like redistribution of wealth". Both sides advocate redistribution of wealth (i.e. taxes). They just disagree on what that tax money should be used for (incidentally I know a LOT of "rights" claim they are opposed to taxes, yet they rely on programs that cannot function without taxes). | |
| Apr 29, 2011 at 7:02 | comment | added | corsiKa | @tylerl I'd have to disagree with that assessment. Most of the various leftist philosophers (not just American) have been strongly in favor of a progressive redistribution of wealth, which is strictly anti-capitalist. A corporation's redistribution of wealth is (by definition) regressive. | |
| Apr 29, 2011 at 6:27 | comment | added | tylerl | glowcoder: progressive redistribution of wealth is not a leftist principle. It's a potential outgrowth of using laws to improve the status of the average citizen, and may be a goal of a given political party. But it's not a core part of the ideology. In fact, it could be a Right-wing ideal if the redistribution was effected by a non-governmental organization such as a church or corporation. | |
| Apr 29, 2011 at 6:01 | comment | added | corsiKa | +1 for the distinction of Right/Left vs Rep/Dem. Although, you left out one of the primary leftist principles: progressive redistribution of wealth. That aside, I think your analysis of right and left is fairly spot on, and seems to not favor one or the other. | |
| Apr 29, 2011 at 5:45 | history | answered | tylerl | CC BY-SA 3.0 |