By Tom McAllister:
It’s an amazingly shrewd deception, so subtle that virtually everyone has missed it. It’s so clever that it’s hard to believe that those on the political left were smart enough to devise it. What I’m describing is the common misunderstanding of basic political geometry – that is, what accurately describes its right and the left wings.
We’re all familiar with the terms “right-wing conservative” and “far-right conservative” and the nouveau “alt right,” which alludes to a type of ultraconservative. It is a cunning ploy. Let’s be perfectly clear and geometrically accurate: conservatism and the conservative viewpoint are not and never have been a wing.
Politics refers to the activities associated with governance. When speaking about the level of influence and involvement of the government in our lives, we have two extremes. On the left wing is the liberal-progressive viewpoint that desires more government influence. The increase of government influence and control eventually leads to tyranny. The opposite wing or right wing is the viewpoint of more individual freedom and minimized government influence. That is libertarianism, and when pursued to its extreme, it leads to anarchy.
So where is conservatism? Conservatism is geometrically in the center, as it logically wants to “conserve” the status quo, or, in our American government, the U.S. Constitution.
This is where the cleverness comes in. By attempting to radicalize and call conservatism a wing and ultraconservatism an extreme wing to the right, the left turns all forms of compromise toward a moderate so-called middle into movements to the left. It’s a brilliant strategy with unfortunately dire consequences. For the left, it’s “heads, I win, and tails, I don’t win as much, but I still win.” True logic would dictate that you initiate any topical debate from the middle, with the conservative viewpoint, and then decide if the desired solution requires more government involvement (go left) or reduced government involvement (go right).
Read more: American Thinker
