I wish people would get out of the habit of talking about the "political spectrum" as is one's beliefs could be positioned on a single line. That is an unjustified limitation of the complexity of human beings.
The political spectrum is defined as being either to the left or to the right. These in themselves are rather meaningless terms. Those on the right are not approaching fascism and those on the left are not approaching communism. Both of these bankrupt systems were only interested in state power.
Take the case of Rep. Anthony Wiener, a Democrat. His Twitter foibles are an aberration not shared by other Democrats. Neither are the foibles of Sen. Ensign shared by other Republicans. Maybe we need a couple of political dimensions for arrogance and for sexual dalliance.
How about a dimension for ignorance vs. diligence? Rep. Michele Bachman complains about being forced not to use incandescent lamps. The bill has no such prohibition; it specifies the energy needed for so many lumens. She never read the bill; I did. Senators were challenged to read the entire original PATRIOT act. Only one did and he voted against it.
How about a dimension for certitude and doubt? We have too many all along the political spectrum who have too much of the first and not enough of the second.
Finally, how about a dimension for being right and for being wrong? We have people all along the political spectrum who are often more right than wrong as well as those who are often more wrong than right.
