The Political Spectrum
You hear this one a lot: "Barack Obama is bad because he's far too socialist/communist".
This is true in the same way 500 dollars is more money than 498 dollars.
American politics likes to make a big deal about the left and right wings of the political spectrum. Democrats are left-wing and blue and communist hippies, and Republicans are right-wing and red and theocratic rednecks. Not totally true, but when you try to explain the other as everything you're not, well . . .
But y'know what? On a global level, the US left wing is still pretty right-side of the political spectrum. You look at modern Republican France where they pay taxes out the ass and protest for rights and benefits fairly regularly - this is a country where the government fears its people.
That is left-wing. Not extreme, but sorta the archetypal version. And hey, it works well enough for 'em. Good for them.
Canadian Liberals . . . pretty centrist. Canadian New Democratic Party . . . pretty left. Canadian Conservatives . . . probably fit in the middle of US Democrats and US Republicans.
But again . . . even if a lot of people believe in Liberal ideas, our particular party screwed the pooch. Moving on . . .
