The Redefinition of Political Stances

I have been listening to The 5,000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen lately. In this book, Cleon tries to impart the key principles that the Founding Fathers believed in that enabled the United States to become the most free and most prosperous nation in the world. The book challenges some of the viewpoints I have had of the Founders- it is a very interesing read if you are interested in history, philosophy, or politics.

The most interesting point that I have encountered so far, is that the Founders viewed the political spectrum in a fundamentally different manner. We currently place Socialist, tree-hugging liberals on the left side of the scale and intolerant, greedy capitalists on the right. The Founders looked at the Political scale in a very simple way as a result of their experience with the British Government. For them, the left side of the scale was Tyranny, the right Anarchy. To me this viewpoint is much more productive and helps unite a people. Since the vast majority of people do not want either extreme end of the scale, they would tend to find themselves bunched more towards the middle. Here is a picture of the scale:


The people left of center would strive to solve problems that arise and those on the right would ensure that we can afford the solution and that it does not infringe on our freedom. Although this is basically how the two parties work now, it seems that the parties are in a no-holds-barred tug-o-war instead of a partnership. A scale that pushes people toward the center would seem to be much more effective (the three heads of the Eagle are the three branches of government).

So does the way we draw the scale really affect politics? I believe that it does if we completely change our viewpoint and approach to the solutions that our government hopes to put in place.

By the way, who fits on the Tyranny side of the scale? Germany under Hitler, Russia under Communism, Britain and the Colonies under the Monarchy, the list could go on and on. Not the kinds of governments we want to replicate. I don't think any group of people live in Anarchy for any significant period of time- let me know if you have an example (Zombie Apocolypse?).