Can someone please explain...

[Princess Jes]

What "left-wing" and "right-wing" mean?

Is one conservative to the point of censorship (kill me!) and PC and the other like... The complete opposite (I realise this makes sense but for some reason words escape me as to how to describe that, other than "free thinking" or "out of the box" perhaps?)

I've been thinking of this for a while but Pete mentioned it so heavily this week that I need to know.

ETA: Also, could someone shed any light on how your political system works in terms of parties? Eg. The democrats and the republicans?
I'm of the understanding that one errs on the side of left wing and the other the right?

 

[Princess Jes]

Interesting.
It's funny because the liberal party in Australia is the opposite to yours. They're for corporations and "the rich" and have little care for the middle and lower class, they're probably more conservative and our current party in power is liberal, and I'm not sure if you've heard anything about our Prime Minister Tony Abbott, but I have some choice words I'm apparently not allowed to use here to describe him.
He fights against marriage equality (his sister is gay) and has made comments about women and where their place is (at home looking after the house and kids apparently)

So what is democrats and republicans? And where do they fall on this spectrum?

 

[jcb]

What "left-wing" and "right-wing" mean?

Is one conservative to the point of censorship (kill me!) and PC and the other like... The complete opposite (I realise this makes sense but for some reason words escape me as to how to describe that, other than "free thinking" or "out of the box" perhaps?)

I've been thinking of this for a while but Pete mentioned it so heavily this week that I need to know.

ETA: Also, could someone shed any light on how your political system works in terms of parties? Eg. The democrats and the republicans?
I'm of the understanding that one errs on the side of left wing and the other the right?

The analogies are not all that close but left wing would be closest to your labor party. Left wing is associated with the Democratic party. They would be considered "liberals" or "progressives."

Now, to really confuse things, your "liberal" party is center right. A closer equivalent for "right wing" among Australian parties would be your christian democrats or the family first party. Right wing is often associated with the Republican party. You'll hear "tea party" bandied about but that is not a political party. It is the more conservative members of the Republican party.

Our election process starts very early. We are over a year away from the next general election (for president) but the campaigns have already begun and now dominate the news cycles. But at this point, the candidates are courting the "extreme" members of their parties (euphemistically referred to as the "base") because those are pretty much the folks who are motivated to pay attention to the candidates at this point.

The rest of us are just plain sick of it already.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

Hi All,

I'm going to close this thread as it's against guidelines. Political discussions are against posting guidelines. Because the other thread relates to a major show discussion, I have left that one up, but this crosses into the area of what's not allowed.