The Christian Right?

The other day I heard a man talking about politics in the United States, and in that respect he divided the political spectrum into "the liberal left" and "the Christian right". How might that be? What has the Left to do with being liberal, and how come the Right is associated with Christianity?

A part of the answer is the political landscape in America. Those calling themselves "liberal" in America are more often than not those who are willing to allow homosexuals to live together, and want as much as possible in the hands of the state. Those calling themselves "conservatives" (or to the right) are more often than not those who are reluctant to grant homosexuals the right to live together, but show understanding towards allowing the private enterprise to prosper without the state butting in all the time. (I am only speaking very roughly and not literally about the political landscape in America - counterexamples of my examples are easy to find).

So there we have it - the Christian Right and the liberal Left. But something doesn't add up. Those who want the state to grow in power economically, Leftists, are those who want the state to stay out of peoples private lives (excluding John Kerry and other canons in the Democratic Party). Those who want the state to grow in power socially, Rightist, are those who want the state to stay out of the market. Does this add up? In this formulation we have two groups of people, each wanting the state to strengthen in one area and weaken in another, and still we call them Leftists and Rightists! No, this won't do.

The fact of the matter is that those who want the state to gain power and increase control are one group, and those who want the opposite are another. Since Communism, Socialism, Marxism, Social Democratism and other inventions of the Left are generally associated with state-control and limited market-laws, we shall call those who want the state to control either people or markets Leftists, and the others Rightists. This would mean that when it comes to the mainstream politics, Americans only have Leftists with different views on exacly what the state should have a stranglehold on, but not whether or not it should have any kind of stranglehold.

The word "liberal" is nothing which suits the American Left. The word "Christian" or "conservative" is nothing which fits to the American Right.