The United States Capitol at Washington DC. (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I threatened to tell this story the other day.\u00a0 So here it is:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back in the early 1890s, when I was in high school, my teacher in a class in either American government or American history \u2014 I can\u2019t recall which it was, nor his name, though I think it was more likely American government \u2014 was a specimen of that rara avis<\/em>, a card-carrying member of some socialist political party or other.\u00a0 Literally.\u00a0 He showed me his card<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
His party membership may or may not be relevant to the little episode I\u2019m about to relate, but I found it interesting. \u00a0I\u2019d never met a real socialist at that point. \u00a0And I\u2019ve met only a few of them, in America at least, since<\/em> then.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyway, he set out one day to explain to his\u00a0students the difference between political left and political right.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, I was already familiar with the terminology. \u00a0And, as it\u2019s\u00a0often used, it made no sense to me. \u00a0 It still doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, he told us, had been\u00a0on the extreme\u00a0right. \u00a0Thomas Jefferson, were he alive today, would be on the\u00a0more respectable<\/em>\u00a0right.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I immediately raised my hand. \u00a0I asked the teacher whether he was saying that Jefferson was a moderate Nazi, or that Hitler was an extreme Jeffersonian democrat.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat makes no sense!\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly!\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
We went back and forth a few times, and then he indicated that my wisest course of action would be to shut up. \u00a0Which, for once, I did.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But comments that put conservatives and\/or the Republican Party somewhat to the right of political center and fascism on the far<\/em> right \u2014 I\u2019ve seen several such in the past few days \u2013prompt me to post this little anecdote, with a comment.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
To me, the most sensible left\/right spectrum runs from total government control or totalitarianism on the far left to zero government control or anarchy on the far right. \u00a0In this scheme, fascism and Nazism (a term that, after all, is short for\u00a0Nationalsozialismus <\/em>or\u00a0National Socialism<\/em>) occupy the extreme left along with Communism. \u00a0Mr. Jefferson (who believed that \u201cthat government is best which governs least\u201d) shares\u00a0very little common ground with Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and Mao in that regard. \u00a0He has much more in common with libertarianism, which I would describe as being on the right.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
My proposed spectrum has the substantial benefit of\u00a0actually making sense<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It also has this<\/em> virtue: \u00a0It puts me pretty securely in the center. \u00a0Anybody to my left, who wants more government control than I do, is wrong, as is anybody to my right, who wants less government control than I believe to be warranted.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s always a comfort to have my views vindicated!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, if we\u2019re going for a less solipsistic application of my scale, there is a large area between totalitarianism on the left and anarchism on the right.\u00a0 I\u2019m on the rightward side of the mainstream, and many are on the leftward side of it, but there\u2019s quite a bit of room in that mainstream.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I threatened to tell this story the other day.\u00a0 So here it is: \u00a0 Back in the early 1890s, when I was in high school, my teacher in a class in either American government or American history \u2014 I can\u2019t recall which it was, nor his name, though I think it was more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3493,14347,725,8223,8789,14750,19109,19106,3691,14273,9641,19121,19112,19118,18046,7042,12907,19133,19130,3676,3685,8331,1914,734,3142,19127,19115,19124,2911,2914,2292],"class_list":["post-89123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-communism","tag-communist","tag-conservatism","tag-conservative","tag-democrat","tag-democratic","tag-fascism","tag-fascist","tag-hitler","tag-jefferson","tag-left","tag-left-wing","tag-leftism","tag-leftwing","tag-lenin","tag-liberal","tag-liberalism","tag-mao","tag-mussolini","tag-nazi","tag-nazism","tag-political","tag-politics","tag-republican","tag-right","tag-right-wing","tag-rightism","tag-rightwing","tag-socialism","tag-socialist","tag-stalin"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Capitol](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/05\/Capitol_Building_Full_View.jpg\")
<\/a>