By Douglas V. Gibbs
The common belief in this country is that part of the voting public leans way to the left, part of the voting public leans way to the right, and the remaining voters are moderates, or centrists. Conventional thinking says it is these fence-sitters that determine elections. The liberals vote democrat, the right-wing extremists vote republican, and the independents vote for whoever best marches to the middle, or at least that is what we are told.
Assumptions dictate that the Left is populated by secularists, people who like to reason, and folks that embrace change. Assumptions in our society inform us that the Right is populated by a bunch of gun clinging religious fundamentalists that abhor change, and believe that everyone should be left to completely fend for themselves. Societal assumptions tell us that the centrist-thinking independents are the real reasonable people, riding a fence down the middle, and having moderate elements of both sides running through their thinking.
The problem is that those assumptions are wrong. They are based on an old European political spectrum.
In France, just before the French Revolution, the governmental assembly was divided into two sections of seats. On the left sat those that wanted to change France's government away from a monarchy. They abhorred the State Church, and believed religion interfered with one's ability to reason. They wished for a more democratic system based on modern philosophies pushed by folks like Jean Jacques Rousseau, which included mercantilism, and a more communal society.
The right side of the assembly contained those that did not wish for the system to change at all. These people were strong supporters of the church's role in government, and they were loyal supporters of the monarchy.
From this model the political spectrum emerged, and in Europe this system was used to judge, for the most part, all subsequent governments.
In America we have never instituted a monarchy, nor have we ever allowed a State Church to be established, so the French model for a political spectrum really never applied to us.
In fact, Alexis de Tocqueville, when he came to America in the 1830s, found the system very strange indeed, when he compared it to European systems. The politicians prayed, and the pastors preached politics, but the government did not control the church, and religious institutions did not try to control the government.
The American Political Spectrum is about how much government is applied. The far left is 100% government, and the right is 0% government. The Constitution took a leftist idea, a central government, and a right-wing idea, the application of limitations to the federal government, and used that system to establish our current government. The federal government was established by the United States Constitution. Based on those parameters, one realizes the Constitution is actually dead center... which makes a constitutionalist like myself a Classical Centrist.
The problem is, things have moved so far to the left, the Constitution is now considered a far right document.
Honestly, the sooner we get back to the philosophies presented by the Constitution, the sooner we lead this nation back to prosperity, and the sooner it begins to function as originally intended.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
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