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So I was talking to a friend of mine today. In general, we get along fine. Until we talk about anything that's actually important.

Today, he tried to tell me that Bush II is not a right winger. It took me several moments (of bewilderment) to process the statement before I asked him to define right wing and left wing.

His definition was that right wingers want small government and left wingers want big government. (he might have also said something like left wingers want communism or some such nonsense)

Besides these being a gross generalization and sometimes erroneous, depending on how it is meant, it occurred to me that many people define these two positions differently.

How do you?

Jeremy

left wing- the ex.
right wing- rich people.

Yes, in some ways Bush is not Conservative. Nation-building and running up an enormous deficit go against Conversatism, AFAIK.

Here's Wikipedia's take:

Left Wing
Right Wing

Left Wing: giveth

Right Wing: taketh away

Gross generalizations:

Fiscal Conservative: pro-small government, fewer taxes, less spending, fewer social programs, etc.

Fiscal Liberal: all about the taxes and the spending on social programs like welfare, medicare, social security, etc. etc.

Social Conservative: pro-life, typically resists progress on the civil rights front, hates the gays, thumps the bible, etc.

Socially Liberal: Pretty much the opposite of the above.

Because social issues are usually more hot-button and emotion-stirring, Republicans tend to beat the drum on socially conservative stances while spending money like crazy on defense and their pet projects. Thus, you get people saying Bush is "conservative" because he hates on the gays and talks about his "culture of life" (ha), despite his willingness to send shitloads of taxpayer money to his buddies in the defense industries. Ron Paul is probably the closest thing you're going to see to a "true conservative" in the Republican party, as he actually wants to shrink government while thumping his bible.

This "Bush II is not a right winger" thing is a phenomenon known as "distancing," as in "Albatross? What albatross? That's not MY fucking albatross."

George W. Bush is as right wing as they come, but he's so TREMENDOUSLY unpopular, so, y'know, they're gonna pretend they don't know him.

"W? Can't say I've heard of him..."

dontfeartheringo wrote:This "Bush II is not a right winger" thing is a phenomenon known as "distancing," as in "Albatross? What albatross? That's not MY fucking albatross."

George W. Bush is as right wing as they come, but he's so TREMENDOUSLY unpopular, so, y'know, they're gonna pretend they don't know him.

"W? Can't say I've heard of him..."

Well, yeah. "Right Wing" and "Conservative" are two different things these days. A lot of people fail to make that distinction, though. Republicans are gonna distance themselves from Bush by saying he's not a "true conservative," conveniently ignoring the fact that neither are they. They're all Republicans, though, which means borrow borrow borrow, spend spend spend, and stump stump stump for Jesus.

that damned fly wrote:left wing- The Ex.
right wing- people that don't like The Ex

FYP

Christopher J. McGarvey wrote:

that damned fly wrote:left wing- The Ex.
right wing- people that don't like The Ex

FYP

i knew there was a hole in my logic. thanks, Garvs.

Rick Reuben wrote:I just wrote that in 10 minutes on the fly...

look on my leg, i think there's more room there.