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The problem is that these terms do signify real, stable ideologies, but the vast majority of people are superficial trend-chasers who don't actually adhere to a

• paulryanrogers 1y ago
  > IMO, the current US administration seems to be the most left-wing in my lifetime Can you elaborate?
  • Gormo 1y ago
    Tax hikes on American consumers and businesses. Expansions in federal spending against growing budget deficits. Government pursuing ownership or de facto control of private industry. Aggressive use of executive fiat to pursue novel policies without clear legislative basis. Federal interventions that try to direct or challenge state sovereignty on numerous issues traditionally outside the scope of federal authority. Hesitant foreign policy that seems overly deferential to traditional US adversaries, especially Russia.
• esafak 1y ago
  Trump is left of Carter, Obama, etc. ? How are you defining left-wing, exactly?
  • Gormo 1y ago
    Yes. Far to the left of Carter, who I'd consider a moderate conservative, and marginally to the left of the more centrist Obama. I'm construing left-wing as (a) seeing an expansive role for the state -- and in the US especially the federal government -- as being a prime mover in social and especially economic matters, (b) willingness to use political power in novel and unprecedented ways to address perceived social and economic problems without being constrained by established legal and constitutional norms.
    • esafak 1y ago
      That describes everyone from Hitler and Mussolini to Mao. They all believed in big government, and wielding it internally.
      • Gormo 1y ago
        Yes, it describes everyone who aims to use unrestrained political power to reshape society, i.e. the precise opposite of what "conservatism" actually means.
        • esafak 1y ago
          No, not necessarily. Conservatives condone social engineering as long as it agrees with their beliefs; e.g., to promote specific religions, and heteronormativity. Look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism#Beliefs_and_principles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism#Beliefs_and_princ... I think you are describing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_conservatism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_conservatism
          • Gormo 1y ago
            Nothing in Russel Kirk's concept of conservatism implies any of the specific policy positions you're attributing to conservatism per se. Someone whose political agenda is to force society to confirm to a doctrinal ideology that in opposition to the established broad status-quo norms of that society is by definition not a conservative.
            • esafak 1y ago
              > Someone whose political agenda is to force society to confirm to a doctrinal ideology that in opposition to the established broad status-quo norms of that society is by definition not a conservative. Conservatives believe that the status quo may violate the transcendent order and that they are duty bound to restore it. Neither conservatives nor liberals believe the status quo is sacred. Do you think the rolling back of Roe vs. Wade was not a conservative act because it was a "status quo norm" ? They never liked it, so perhaps it was not a norm? Status quoism is different from conservatism.
• dragonwriter 1y ago
  > IMO, the current US administration seems to be the most left-wing in my lifetime Can you name even a single left-wing policy or rhetorical position of this administration? > but contrived cultural wedge issues seem to have eclipsed actual policy positions in most public discourse, “Cultural wedge issues” are about actual policy domains, and have a real left-right valence. > gets called "conservative" despite its policies being almost the diametric opposite of what was called "conservative" 30 years ago. 30 years ago? The height of the neoliberal consensus when the Right leaned heavily on the cultural wedge issues of opposition to abortion, homosexuality, and affirmative action? (I guess it was also just after a midterm election where the Republican Party, being out of the White House for the first time in a while and having just taken a Congressional majority after mostly being in the minority for a generation was also emphasizing restraining government and elected officials more than the Right normally has before or since, but that was pretty obviously a tactical adaptation to the immediate circumstances, not the essence of conservatism.)
  • Gormo 1y ago
    > Can you name even a single left-wing policy or rhetorical position of this administration? Tariffs. Deficit spending. Federalization of law enforcement. Hyperpoliticization of social questions. Government ownership/direction of private industry. > “Cultural wedge issues” are about actual policy domains, and have a real left-right valence. They've not been about actual policy domains until relatively recently. These issues have been marginal with respect to actual policy considerations for decades. > 30 years ago? The height of the neoliberal consensus when the Right leaned heavily on the cultural wedge issues of opposition to abortion, homosexuality, and affirmative action? GOP candidates in certain regions invoked various wedge issues on the campaign trail in order to put them over the top in elections for contested seats. Upon election, they then did nothing whatsoever to shift the actual policy needle in relation to these issue, and focused precisely on "neoliberal consensus" economic issues of the exact sort that the current administration is diametrically opposed to. > but that was pretty obviously a tactical adaptation to the immediate circumstances, not the essence of conservatism. But no, it actually is the "essence of conservatism" where conservatism is an actual political philosophy, and not an empty term that refers to the haphazard policy preferences of whatever faction a particular political party happens to be pandering to at any given moment.