# How Republicans See the Political Spectrum **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 8, 2022, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680 "2022-03-08T13:19:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/41 "2022-03-11T07:52:10Z")
I cannot agree on any premise that says that the democrats are “authoritarian” on gun control when they are in fact to the Right of almost every other developed country on this planet. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/42 "2022-03-11T14:04:27Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > There are some on the extreme left that are pretty intolerant- those are the guys that were advocating “we’re going to use BBB to get everything we could possibly want and if we can’t get absolutely everything then to hell with it we’ll hold our breath and turn blue.” Youre referring, of course, to Joe Manchin and his ilk here? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/43 "2022-03-11T14:05:28Z")
No I meant the squad and Bernie. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/44 "2022-03-11T14:07:23Z")
Got it, you must be a bit confused about what’s beeen happening over the last year, carry on. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/45 "2022-03-11T14:37:32Z")
It’s not the people doing the obstructing, it’s the people we _want_ to be doing the obstructing that are the problem ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/46 "2022-03-14T23:56:25Z")
At first I thought these people were just idiots, but now I think that there’s an intentional attempt to conflate fascism with “the left” so people won’t see a right-wing autocracy when it’s right in front of them. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/47 "2022-03-15T00:44:00Z")
Projection, in the psychological sense, has been the modus operendi of the right for decades now. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/48 "2022-03-15T01:53:24Z")
Projection? I thought their M.O. was simply to lie their asses off. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/49 "2022-03-15T01:58:17Z")
What, you can’t have two M.O.s? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/50 "2022-03-15T02:01:53Z")
Well, yeah, but that requires a level of intelligence a certain political group doesn’t seem to have. Also, I posted early in this thread that I no longer care how the party of treason sees anything. They just simply need to go away, peferably via prison for their leadership. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/51 "2022-03-15T02:14:19Z")
IMHO there’s at least two separate things to unwind here regarding “Republicans.” There’s the traditional democracy vs. authoritarianism axis, with authoritarians gravitating to the Republicans before 3/11/2020 (the official start of the COVID-19 pandemic). With just that axis to consider, the Republicans as authoritarians are a strong but ultimately losing coalition, the vagaries of the electoral college not withstanding. IMHO what happened is that there is another group, call them libertarians, anarchists, freedom lovers, or whatever else, which strongly gravitated Republican after the pandemic started. They aren’t traditional authoritarians that support someone like Hitler, Putin, or Trump. Before that, it was Democrats who were in favor of various freedoms, and they voted accordingly. Freedom to be gay, to be an atheist, to use marijuana, to have an abortion, etc. After COVID-19, however, that group began to see Democrats as being against freedom (to not wear a mask, to not social distance, to not get a vaccine, etc.). They thus gravitated strongly Republican, explaining the 2020 vs. 2018 results, and the ongoing problems Democrats are likely to have in the mid-terms. As a Democrat, I, and presumably many of you on this board, tend to see such things in terms of social responsibility rather than restrictions of freedom. Obviously there are many who don’t view things primarily in that way. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/52 "2022-03-15T02:28:00Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > IMHO what happened is that there is another group, call them libertarians, anarchists, freedom lovers, or whatever else, which strongly gravitated Republican after the pandemic started. Mmm, I think this kind of Republican existed pre-pandemic in the “freedom from taxes” “anti-socialist” etc. identity. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/53 "2022-03-15T03:10:46Z")
This is interesting speculation. I can’t disprove it, but I find it hard to find the numbers of “libertarians, anarchists, freedom lovers, or whatever else” existing but voting Democratic, or at least not voting Republican, earlier. Their present concentration in areas that were already hard-right Republican strongholds is also an argument against. A third point is what Kimstu posted, and I would have extended that to freedom from governments telling them what they can teach in schools, or ban from libraries, or keep Muslims from building mosques, or serving gays, or any or a hundred other “can’t tell me how to live” grotesqueries. The shift became hugely pronounced after 9/11 as well. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/54 "2022-03-15T21:50:25Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > The chart itself says “attribution: Dr. Alan Synder - Pondering Principles.” > > A quick search shows that [Pondering Principles](https://ponderingprinciples.com/) is Dr. Snyder’s blog. Snyder is described as a “history professor for 32 years at Christian universities.” Possibly the chart appears in one of the blog posts? This one. [https://ponderingprinciples.com/2017/08/16/the-alt-right-isnt-right/](https://ponderingprinciples.com/2017/08/16/the-alt-right-isnt-right/) The author presents this chart as his own view of the political spectrum. The article argues that Alt-Right is politically left. [![](https://ponderingprinciples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/True-Political-Spectrum.jpg) ](https://ponderingprinciples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/True-Political-Spectrum.jpg) ~Max ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2022, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680/55 "2022-03-16T00:44:09Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I don’t know where this chart comes from – a quick search finds it nowhere else, and it might be original with this article. But if it’s at all accurate, it explains things like Bill Barr’s statement yesterday that Trump was utterly unfit to govern, but he’d elect him again over any Democrat. It fits better than former dictums like “never speak ill of another Republican” (since they’ve already DONE that). > [@Max\_S](#): > > [https://ponderingprinciples.com/2017/08/16/the-alt-right-isnt-right/](https://ponderingprinciples.com/2017/08/16/the-alt-right-isnt-right/) I’m probably giving this blog more thought than it deserves, but anyone who actually believed it would think that Trump, who is pretty nakedly an authoritarian nationalist would be worse than a Democrat. I think Barr’s support is either shown more by corruption than ideology, or it’s a sign that he’s just an authoritarian and hasn’t warped his views into whatever that “ideological spectrum” is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-republicans-see-the-political-spectrum/960680.md?page=2)