Question

What does left-wing and right-wing mean in US History, and present day America????

Answer 1

Unfortunately I cannot give a complete answer to this question but I can try my best!

In simple terms, the left-wing are socialists and therefore their priority when in government is caring for the social aspects of the population. However for many Americans the left-wing can be stereotyped into being 'commies', a title that derives from the cold war. There policies are things such as a universal medical for everyone, such as Medicare. In America, the left-wing is the Democratic party which Obama is part of.

The right-wing however are the opposite and are considered conservatives and there priority is based upon the idea of a social order and rather than believing that everyone has equal right to everything, they believe in competitiveness and building your own right to what you want. In America, the right-wing party is the Republican party, which previous Presidents like George Bush was a part of. More recently, due to the up-and-coming election in America, people are running to be the Republican candidate for the Presidential elections. These candidates include Rick Sanatorium, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and, someone who also deserves a mention, Ron Paul.

This sounds like an essay title so it's hard for me to give you a proper answer without writing out 1500+ words. I do however hoped that this has given you some inspiration in answering this question;if I were you maybe go on to discuss more of the stereotypes of the Republicans and Democratics and how they have been affected by historical events.

Also, I just came up with this diagram, which you may come across if you look into it enoug. It's pretty neat and is basically showing how the policies of the extreme right-wing and the extreme left-wing end up being quite similar; however the reasoning behind the policies differ greatly!



The letters stand for:

C - Centre
EL -Extreme left-wing
ER - Extreme right wing
L - Left
R - Right