Thanks for joining in...I thought that you might find this interesting in your liberal/conservative discussion--- something I posted on another thread:
Historically, the continuum between Right and Left was from traditional society (the Ancien Regime), with monarchs, inherited social classes, and a heavy dose of clericalism, to "social democracy", which was democratic, classless, and secular. Communism and anarchism represented the most radical conceptions of "social democracy". So- called bourgeois democracy, otherwise known as classical liberalism, was Leftist in respect of the Ancien Regime, but Rightist relative to out and out socialists and beyond. Now, conservatives are more or less old- fashioned liberals, and "liberals" are (mild) social democrats. The economic divide has to do with a respect for property rights, including the amassing of wealth and inheritance,on the one hand; and the attempt to narrow income gaps and attack inherited wealth through politics, on the other....
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