surfsteve wrote:In either case I don't agree. I spent 8 years criticizing Bush and being called a liberal. Now that I'm criticizing Obama the same people are calling me right wing. Left and right are just tools used by politicians to divide and conquer.
I completely disagree! If you criticize both Bush and Obama for the same reason then you probably have Libertarian leanings since both of them would be placed near the top of the chart since they both have Authoritarian tendencies. In fact, 90% of those in office have Authoritarian leanings. In fact, despite the slogan that this is the land of the free, it's actually the case that most citizens have a strong authoritarian mindset. Our leaders seem to feel that the best way to solve social problems is to make laws regulating the behavior of individuals. This is about the most repugnant way of dealing with social problems known, but those who do not love freedom always want to make more laws regulating the behavior of individual citizens.
On the other hand, if you criticize Bush and Obama for different reasons, then you are probably a moderate conservative since that would put you in between those two. Obama is pretty much middle-of-the-road in terms of Liberalism vs. Conservatism and Bush is further to the right.
Most TV news shows never talk about Authoritarianism vs Libertarianism. They seem oblivious to this dimension in political thought. All you ever hear about on TV is Liberalism vs Conservatism which does not account for a whole heck of a lot without the other dimension!!!