Reply #53: What I'm saying is Left does not equal Liberal.

[RaleighNCDUer]

Technically speaking, most American conservative republicans are liberals, in that they support democracy, democratic institutions and democratic principles. They may interpret them differently than progressives do, but fundamentally, Democracy is Liberal.

The real divide is not Left vs Right, but Liberal vs Authoritarian. Go far enough to the left and you will find a RW authoritarian - look at all the neocons who were marxists in their college days.

When Hitler needed breathing time in his conquests, he didn't sign agreements with liberal democracies - he signed a pact with the soviet union.

We need to come up with a vocabulary that reflects this. Jimmy Carter tried it, declaring a pox on both houses, refusing support to RW dictatorships like the Shah of Iran and Samoza in Nicaragua while still opposing the LW dictatorships of the Soviet Union. Maintaining the old paradigms does nothing but increase conflict.