This post is part 3 of our Saving America series.
Use the following diagram and definitions to understand “the left” and “the right” of the political spectrum and how it applies to Americans.
Why we think this is necessary: During ideological wars radicals bastardize terms and definitions to distort the facts; they don’t want you to know who they really are, and they want you to question and defend who you really are by vomiting accusations grounded in terminology that Americans don’t normally use or are unfamiliar with.
An important layer of political misunderstanding that is easy to overlook is that Americans tend to look at things from an American point of view, whereas non-Americans usually look at things from a European political ideological viewpoint. In comparison to most all other countries, America is a very young country (less than 250 years old), but these ideological wars have been fought for far longer than that. The monarchy of the Kingdom of England, for example, was founded over ten centuries ago in 927.
Very generally speaking, in America when we speak of the left we are typically referring to the Democrat Party, and when we speak of the right we are referring to the Republican Party and, less often, the Libertarian Party. Independents are purportedly to be somewhere in between Democrats and Republicans. Yes there are smaller, less known parties in the USA, but very seldom actually appear on election ballots. We are the only country that typically views the left and the right in this way. The political spectrum from world history is much more expanded. So when radicals accuse Americans of being ideologues that deserve to be spit upon and beat up, we need to understand the facts of what we are being accused of. We need to understand this for our own knowledge – not so that we can plead our innocence to people who want to burn our country down.
An example that radicals use to distort perceptions and political classifications in America is the ideology of fascism and fascists: Most leftist radicals today assert that “fascism is on the right” and refer to fascists as the “alt-right”. Here’s the key to untangling that particular distortion: Fascism is to the right of Marxism and communism, but it is to the left of our Constitutional Republic. The contempt that average Americans feel towards a fascist is completely different from the contempt that a Marxist feels towards a fascist. Marxists and communists hate fascists because, among other things, they are not far enough to the left.
Another example of ideological distortions is when these radicals declare that “white supremacy” is on the right. Hitler is the most well-known white supremacist on the planet and as everyone knows he was a socialist. Socialism is to the right of Marxism and communism, but it is to the left of our Constitutional Republic. It is fact that the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) originated and was propagated by the Democrat Party in the USA. Today’s Democrat Party is to the the right of Marxists and communists, but it is to the left of Republicans.
We strongly believe it’s essential for Americans to be on the same page with one another regarding these terms and definitions. We are not offering this guide to assist you in civil discourse and political debates with Marxists and communists. These radicals do not want to have a discussion or even an argument – they want to yell at you, punch you in the head and burn your business to the ground. Everything that we hold sacred they wish to destroy. And so this is a battle against evil: All Americans need to understand who our enemy is, what motivates them, and what their tactics are. The above examples of their purposeful distortions is one of their tactics of creating division and chaos.
We are not assuming that this cheat sheet is perfect, but it is the best we can offer right now.
Because we now live in times of people and the main stream media arbitrarily changing, swapping or making up new definitions to old words, we are choosing to go with an older hard-copy dictionary. Unless otherwise noted, all definitions are taken directly from the 1960 International Version of the Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of the English Language.
| anarchy
1 Absence of government. 2 Lawless confusion and political disorder. 3 General disorder. |
| capitalism
1 An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are for the most part privately owned and operated for private profit. 2 The possession and concentration of private capital and its resulting power and influence. |
| collectivism
The doctrine that people as a whole should own or control the material and means of production, or the spirit which determines production by the masses rather by individuals. |
| communism
1 A social system in which there is community of goods. 2 A theory of government and social order according to which property and the instruments of production belong to the people and are held as a common trust, the profits arising from all labor to be devoted to the general good. 3 Any social theory that calls for the abolition of private property and control by the community over economic affairs. |
| democracy
1 A theory of government which, in its purest form, holds that the state should be controlled by all people, each sharing equally in privileges, duties, and responsibilities and each participating in person in the government, as in the city-states of ancient Greece. In practice, control is vested in elective officers as representatives, who may be upheld or removed by the people. 2 A government so conducted; a state so governed; the mass of the people. |
| dictator/dictatorship
1 One invested with absolute power, especially in a state in time of emergency. 2 One who dictates or proscribes. 3 In ancient Rome, a chief magistrate with supreme authority, appointed by the Senate in cases of emergency for a term of about six months. |
| fascism
fascism: Any authoritarian, anti-democractic, anti-communist system of government in which economic control by the state, militaristic nationalism, propaganda, and the crushing of opposition by means of secret police emphasize the supremacy of the state over the individual; |
| liberalism
1 An attitude toward social, economic, political, and ecclesiastical policies, favoring gradual reform and ordered change rather than reaction or revolution and opposed equally to arbitrary censorship and undue license in dealing with ideas. 2 A doctrine often equated in laissez-faire economics [the let-alone principal; absolutely uncontrolled industrial and commercial competition; noninterference] , holding to free trade and to minimum interference by the state with economic activities. |
| libertarianism
A theory of government which holds that the state is subordinate to the individual. It may range from extreme anarchism to pure democracy. |
| Marxism
The body of doctrine formulated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in systematic form, including economic determinism, class conflicts leading inevitably to revolution in the transition from capitalism and thence to communism under the dictatorship of the proletariat [lower class, lowest in class systems, indigents, etc.], and the predicted ultimate triumph of world communism as a result of destructive rivalries among the capitalist-imperialist powers. |
| monarchy
1 Government by a monarch [king or emperor]; sovereign control. 2 A government or territory ruled by a monarch. A government in which the power and prerogative of the sovereign are limited by constitutional provisions. |
| oligarchy
A form of government in which supreme power is restricted to a few. |
| republic
1 a state in which sovereignty resides in the people or in a certain portion of the people, and the legislative and administrative powers are lodged in officers elected by and representing the people; a representative democracy: applied to almost every form of government except kingdoms, empires and dictatorships. 2 A community of persons working freely in or devoted to the same cause. |
| socialism
Public collective ownership or control of the basic means of production, distribution, and exchange, with the avowed aim of operating for use rather than for profit, and of assuring to each member of society an equitable share of goods, services and welfare benefits: as a system of social and economic organization planned, attempted or achieved through various methods… |
| totalitarianism
Designating or characteristic of a government controlled exclusively by one party or faction, which suppresses all opposition and criticism and controls and regiments all social, cultural and economic activity in the country to advance its political aims. |
