Political labels

Political labels -- terms like “liberal” and “conservative” and “left” and “right” and even “Republican” and “Democrat” -- are a necessary evil. Necessary, because they express certain valid and valuable ideas, and greatly streamline communication. Evil, because, like many labels, they are almost always oversimplifications, are sometimes misleading or in themselves political, and sometimes make meaningful communication more difficult. As with ALL words, each of us has our own continually-evolving internal definition of each term, which may or may not resemble any other person’s definition.

In contemporary American society, there tends to be a close relationship between “liberal” and “left” and “Democrat” on one side and “conservative” and “right” and “Republican” on the other, though each of the terms has at least a slightly different meaning, and theoretically there can be conservative, right-leaning Democrats, as well as liberal, left-leaning Republicans, though the reality tends to be that Democrat politicians are judged by HOW liberal and left-leaning they are, while Republican politicians are judged by HOW conservative and right-leaning they are, with the less extreme members of both parties being labeled “moderate”. When it comes to actual VOTERS rather than politicians, there is nothing saying a registered Republican cannot be a left-leaning liberal, and there can be conservative, right-leaning registered Democrats.

This is a strange area of terminology for me. As a general rule, I strive to choose my words with a certain degree of precision. With political labels such as these, I do almost the opposite, striving for a certain degree of vagueness. I freely interchange terms like “liberal” and “Democrat”, even while I believe the truth is that there are plenty of conservative Democrats. In short, the truth is complicated.

With regard to the six terms I listed above, I personally am most comfortable using “right” and “left” to describe political leanings. One of the reasons is that they seem to be the least emotion-charged; there is nothing particularly “good” or “bad” about the terms “right” and “left”. One could argue that there is nothing intrinsically good or bad about the words “liberal” or “conservative” or “Republican” or “Democrat”, but in our current polarized society ALL of these terms -- including “left” and “right” -- have taken on some emotion-charged attributes.

Another reason I use “right” and “left” is that they seem to be the vaguest and most generic of the six terms, and therefore the most accurate. The fact is that none of these labels necessarily predict the behavior or beliefs of the person claiming the label. I believe it is mostly those on the opposing side of the issues that BELIEVE the labels accurately reflect the behavior and beliefs of the person. While there are stereotypes associated with the various labels, these stereotypes are at best generalities that do not necessarily apply to any single individual, and at worst these stereotypes just plain wrong.

As I already stated, I view these labels as necessary. There are times when it is good to be able to make references to a broad, general group of people or ideas, such as “liberal” or “conservative”. At the same time, we should always be aware that these terms are only generalities, and can never be relied upon to precisely represent a person or idea.

Among the factors that complicate the truth of these terms is that any given unique individual may have different views on different issues. For example, someone may be a “fiscal conservative” while being a “social liberal” -- and it is impossible to determine whether that same person will choose to register as a Democrat, Republican, or Independent.

Still, while any individual may have totally unique, thoroughly complicated opinions, most attempts to fruitfully examine or discuss a particular issue must involve a certain degree of oversimplification, such as “Republicans favor THIS approach, while Democrats favor THAT approach.”

It is unfortunate that many insist on “spinning” both their own views and those of their opponents. For example, in our current society the Republican Party generally favors LESS government, while the Democratic Party generally favors MORE government -- but even this statement is not only an oversimplification, but inflammatory. As an extension of this idea, a Republican can truthfully argue that Democrats tend to favor higher taxes, while a Democrat can truthfully argue that Republicans tend to favor cutbacks in all sorts of programs that may improve the lives of common people. An ordinary voter can be forgiven for wanting both lower taxes AND a continuation of government programs.

For now, I will continue to freely interchange these political labels, realizing all the while that they are oversimplifications, and not particularly accurate, and that the truth is complicated.

P.S. The recent death of Andrew Breitbart is a great tragedy for all of us, regardless of label. The world needs more people like Andrew Breitbart.