First I would like to say that this was a very good diagram. I thought it stayed away from the pitfall of judging either side based on personal bias.
Dave, your aberration for republicans clearly shows which way you lean. Your statement that republicans are feudalistic and give money only to the wealthiest is misleading. All of your comments are based on a naive understanding of the economics of party policies. The republicans support tax cuts which means the money you put in you get back; it just seems like they are for the rich because the rich pay all of the taxes. If you cut taxes then they are going to get the biggest benefit(nominally but overall most tax cuts are based on percentages). If the poor got the most then that would be the government redistributing wealth. They are in effect taxing the wealthy to give to the poor. It doesn’t matter to me which way you lean but you need to get some facts and come back and see me. Before you right me off as a disgruntled republican, I would classify myself more as a classical liberal, so I have some arguments with both sides

Isn’t it just two wings of the same bird? They blame eachother for their own problems. They play off eachother to hide the corruption on the left if your a “conservative” or on the right if your a “liberal.” Get over it America! Both sides are corrupt. It’s like professional wrestling. It’s really the new world order people against the freedom people.

Nice artwork, but totally flawed. The reality is the chart should be labeled “Statist” vs “Individualist.” The Left are elitists and Statists who think that they should be in charge of an enlightened State that can perfect human nature. They are utopian and backwards looking (proceeding Forward into the Past towards the next socialist dictatorship, with the best of intentions in their hearts), trying to create something that can never be. They believe in communitarianism and shallow egalitarianism (aka “some animals are more equal than others”). Their vision is as old as Plato’s Republic.

The Individualists are meritocrats who think that human nature is flawed and cannot be perfected, so the best form of government is that which governs least yet empowers the individual. They believe in individual responsibility, equal opportunity and meritocracy.
How’s that for some counter stereotypes??

I’d agree that the interference in social lives is much heavier on the conservative side…I understand that liberals tend toward regulation and public programs that may affect the individual, but the conservatives are much more invasive. Controlling elections, wiretapping, filling up prisons…that seems like a fairly steep influence on a citizen’s life. They want total control over what people can say, what they can do (i.e. victimless crimes), what they can believe (church/state not so separate), what they can achieve (keeping the rich rich and the poor poor), and the list goes on. I don’t see how liberals, with a live and let live philosophy, can hardly be said to interfere in our social lives more than the average conservative.

I agree with the commenters who point out that “conservatives” interefere with the lives and rights of individuals in a more agressive and offensive way than “liberals” do. Both have their share of statist and interventionist behaviors. In America, the Republican Party lost all credibility whe claiming a philsophy of individual liberty and fiscal responsibility a very long time ago. The government gets bigger and more powerful regardless of the party nominally in power, but the largest deficits and most outrageous assaults on the constitution can be claimed by repuplican regimes.

Conservatism was pronounced dead over forty years ago by none other than Ayn Rand, perhaps the only true philosopher the right in America has ever had. Conservatives still have the gall to quote her and claim her as their own.

There is a more important axis, a “vertical” one if you will, authoritarian vs. libertarian. This axis cuts across the spectrum of nominally “leftist” and “right-wing” groups. The true dominant ideology Global Corporatism is a fusion of authoritarian right and left ideologies, and in the end has no ideology other than the memetic/viral pathology of power.

“Left” and “Right” are illusory distinctions used for purposes of dividing and ruling:
Industrial Psychology: A Global Control System
I Live in a Totalitarian Socialist State

Inspired by its clarity I have set this as my desktop background and am organising my icons accordingly…so my tax return stuff – all to the left. My business stuff to the right. And consequently I’m going to let my desktop tell me what kind of person I am. If this is any sort of way of judging WHAT I DO rather than WHAT I THINK then it turns out I am more right than I thought even though my heart leaps to the left. Brilliant work!