Left, Right, And Useless
The bunker has been saying for years that the political descriptors “left” and “right” are a pair of utterly useless terms, and it seems that Canadians are finally catching up.
Frank Graves, president of Ekos Research Associates, which does in-depth polling in Canada and the United States, said he does not find the same trends across the border as he does here.
“Americans are much more ideological than Canadians. They tenaciously hold on to their ideological orientations and they are much more conservative, much more moral, with more religiosity and so forth.”
In contrast, Canadian voters over the past quarter-century have indicated to academic investigators that most of them can’t define right or left or care about the distinction. They increasingly think of themselves as non-partisan and non-ideological. They have the weakest political-party affinity in the Western world.
(emphasis mine)
Something that indicates, IMO, that Canada is populated by more politically intelligent people than the rest of the western world.
Adolf Hitler and Stephen Harper are both politically right of centre, Stephane Dion and Joseph Stalin are both politically left of centre, and Pope Benedict XVI and George W. Bush are on opposite sides of the political fence – what sort of intelligent conclusion are you able to form from those bit’s of information?
Note: If you are able to draw what you think is an intelligent conclusion stop reading now – the rest will probably just confuse you.
I am non-partisan, my views on any given issue are my own and not coloured by party ideology or dogma. I am regularly accused by the self-professed right of being a barking moon bat leftie as a result of some of my political views, and of drinking too deeply of the Conservative kool-aid by the self-professed left for others – and as Graves research shows those leveling the accusations share far more in common with their ideologically driven hyper-partisan brethren south of the border than they do with the mainstream Canadian views they all pretend to represent.
I hear you SL.
I my self could be considered a small-government conservative fiscally (actually a no-government one he he) – I want as little government interference as possible, no taxation (or at least volountary taxation – I’ll pay for programs and initiative I agree with and not those I don’t).
On the other hand, and actually by the same principles, I don’t want the government telling women whether or not they can have an abortion, telling gays they cannot be married or enforcing any other kind of moral dogma on people who don’t subscribe to it.
At one time that might have made me a Progressive Conservative, I suppose, but that animal is dead.
In reality, there is no party and no system for me – I find the idea that any other arrangement other than voluntary to be morally indefensible.
I own my body and what I do with it is no ones business but mine, so long as I harm no one else. That means if I decide to buy and smoke some pot, or marry another man or get an abortion, it is no else’s business. That also means I should be able buy and sell whatever I want and not have my money stolen from me in order to support the oil and gas industry in Alberta or a misbegotten war in Afghanistan.
Seems neither the traditional “left” not the “right” get that.
Same here. While I have a lot of conservative tendencies, I definitely support Mike’s right to get an abortion.
I think non-partisanship scares people because they can’t pigeon-hole you in their simplistic left-right world, so despite not fitting in either of those molds they put you in anyway. People are getting increasingly stupid, so any sort of nuance is lost on them. It ain’t going to get better.
Peter,
Well point taken I suppose, but I think you know what I mean.
And there is no small degree of irony in men such as myself who can never have an abortion, or even go through the process of deciding about a pregnancy, presuming to tell women what they can and cannot do with their bodies. If you are every in downtown Ottawa, have a look at the anti-abortion protestors on Sparks street or up on the Hill (a mainstay here) – every one of them an old man – one of them an old celibate man.
PeterD,
Yep.
I like the quadrants that SL and the Bunker uses, but it we have to have a single axis, I’d rather “left” and “right” give way to ‘non-authoritarian” and “authoritarian” , since that is really a better descripton.
That way right-wing so-con fascists and leftwing nanny state marxist can be grouped together where they belong.
So you know about politicalcompass.org. What are your scores on the test?
My scores are “Economic Left/Right” -0.12 (straight down the middle on the government’s role in the economy) and “Social Libertarian/Authoritarian”
-3.44 (libertarian but not doctrinaire on the government’s role in personal life).
I’m amazed that Canadians use the US to either prove or disprove any argument they want to prove or disprove. Americans who pay attention view Canada as a canary in a coal mine.
See here
The test at politicalcompass.org is rife with inherent assumptions and unjustified fuzzy universalisms that make any number of the questions impossible for me to answer sensibly.
That said, I generally describe myself as being way over in the very lower right corner of the LRQ.
And I like this from you, Mike: “I’d rather “left” and “right” give way to ‘non-authoritarian” and “authoritarian””
The usual divide is seen as being between economic freedom and social (usually understood as something like “personal moral”) freedom, but economic freedom and social/moral freedom are *corrolaries*.
I’ve drifted up and to the left since my last test.
lol and touché!
I knew there was a reason I keep reading you even though you’re way left of me: you’re also way more libertarian than me. (And I’m not 100% sure, but I now think I found Political Compass from your site, an excellent referral, thanks.)
Now makes me wonder if the pejorative term “Hippy” refers to someone on the left, or in the lower half of the graph.
Are there right-wing hippies?
Throbbin’:
There’s me. I probably fit the RWH description.
Peace.