Simplistically... The right wing believes in keeping the old traditions and the left believes in modifying those to 'fit the day's or to achieve 'progress'. In

Simplistically... The right wing believes in keeping the old traditions and the left believes in modifying those to 'fit the day's or to achieve 'progress'. In this framework the difference you notice makes absolute sense. America is a country founded on enlightenment ideas, which were part of the leftist school of thought in the old borderline ecclesiocratic aristocracy that would have formed the 'right wing' of Europe. Thus the american right wingers look back to what you'd consider leftist thought as their model of keeping society as it should be, whereas a European right winger may look back to the older days of European monarchs, national identity and religion. In america, the right wing, looking back towards our american enlightenment ideals, wouldn't really believe in any of those things in the same way. There are some bits of overlap, especially in the social issues since those are recent changes. But overall an american right winger is going to be a European classical liberal which is typically considered leftist.