From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 23:15:00 -0800 (PST)
To: James Ormond <jimo@astea.com>
Subject: Re: Extreme Left/Right
In-Reply-To: <Pine.HPP.3.91.961118184355.23458G-100000@hpg60.astea.com>
Message-ID: <32915E11.3DBE@gte.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


James Ormond wrote:
> Sandy,
> I always had trouble understanding what people meant when they used the
> terms "extreme left" and "extreme right".  Then, about 4 months ago, I
> saw a guy define the "political spectrum" the way (he said) it used to be
> defined before the definitions were corrupted (by whomever wants to
> divide - and conquer - the people).  It made sense to me.  A spectrum
> afterall, at least when we're talking about colors, starts with one type
> of color and graduates to other, DIFFERENT colors.

[snip]

Tell ya' something you might find amusing:  During the 1992 campaign,
when I worked for awhile for Perot The Populist, I also sent personal
letters to every right- and left-wing organization I could find out
about (a couple thousand orgs and individuals), and I kept track of the
responses.

My records indicated that the orgs and individuals identified closely
with the *Right* were twice as responsive as those on the *Left*, and
easily ten times as friendly.  There's something to be said about the
down-home sincerity of those folks in small-town America, as opposed to
the ruthless, cynical people who mostly populate the left-wing positions
of influence today in big cities.

Of course, if the Right were to seize power from the Left today (i.e.,
take over newpapers, TV, and so on), what I've described might shift
a bit.