Originally (in the French Revolution) "left" vs. "right" was about "the people" vs. "the aristocracy & the church". At the time this put a neat division betwee

Originally (in the French Revolution) "left" vs. "right" was about "the people" vs. "the aristocracy & the church". At the time this put a neat division between "power" and "powerless". Then we had a century or two of democratic power being used to pillory the rich; the boundaries have become confused. I think the useful distinction is still the same - one should always fight against power, wherever it is strongest. Sometimes, in the modern day, this means supporting government. But most often it means opposing the conjunction of state and private power, which still, as in the early days before the French Revolution, continue to travel together.