From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Fri Jan 24 2003 - 02:08:48 MST
spike writes
> Why is the term leftist more common than its
> counterpart "rightist"? Or is it?
Yes, it is.
> Perhaps I just missed it, but it seems I hear leftist
> guerrillas and leftist insurgency, but seldom
> rightist anything.
No, you didn't miss it. There are several reasons
for this curious phenomenon, an oddity which impedes
one's writing occasionally.
The biggest reason is be historical: quite a number
of "left-wing" forces gladly described themselves as
leftist. Few "right-wing" groups ever employ "rightist"
(as I don't know why, I lack a complete answer to your
question).
Where one might say "rightist", many writers---whose
sympathies are often admittedly with the left---choose
the term "right-wing" instead. The suffix "-wing"
always sounds disparaging, but even us conservative/
libertarians are likely to use it for want of a better
term.
> Rightists have taken power in the US. What are they called?
Until recently, most people would have called Bush a
moderate. That's what his father was, and it was hard
to call him conservative. However, about half of his
stances now seem conservative, and the other half moderate.
To say that "rightists" have taken power is to allude
to a "Seven Days in May" type scenario, where right-wing
generals *take over*. So it's false IMO that "Rightists
have taken power in the US".
The present administration should be called conservative/
moderate.
Lee
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