Why Left and Right Differ Elsewhere

by Norman Berdichevsky (March 2013)

Venstre is currently the largest party in Denmark and was founded on the basis of free market liberalism and is regarded by observers as the traditional classic liberal right-of-center party in favor of lower taxes, and less government intervention in corporate and individual affairs.

How the Right-Left Model Began

In general, politicians of the Left in Europe and their imitators in the newly established republics in North and South America generally endorsed and favored this designation whereas those not ardently in favor of radical changes generally disliked the use of these designations and preferred to be called conservatives, moderates or other names. They philosophically denied that the many different issues of public policy could be neatly arranged in a semi-circle or any single line continuum that would be valid across the entire political spectrum.

Influence of the Bible

The Bible contains at least 25 unfavorable references to the left hand. In the best known example which also extols the right hand in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says:

Why then would the Political Left be so proud to bear this title? Apparently, it is related to the fact that the term indicates an unexpected, non-traditional and even elite status (all to be admired) since only about 10 to 12 percent of the population are left-handed yet they include notable personalities of great achievement such as Julius Caesar, Charlie Chaplin, H.G. Wells, Paul McCartney, Babe Ruth, Lewis Carroll, Nelson Rockefeller, and eight U.S. Presidents including Barack Obama.

The Terms Left and Right Today

The most determined ideological opposition to the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy in the late 1930s was led by arch-conservatives such as Churchill in Britain and de Gaulle in France and by monarchists and conservative Christians elsewhere. This contradicts the usual representation in Hollywood films showing heroic resistance to the Nazis as generated exclusively from the Left.

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