That may be true, but I would argue that the first poster, 28bytes, may have it wrong; I don't think there's a standard one-on-one equivalence. I do think the rightists have much more of a penchant for the certain, the iron-clad way-things-are. I don't think it's a secret why most evangelical Christians flock to the conservative cause - there's no ambiguity there, just a simple case of right and wrong, without getting so much into the wherefores and reasons. The other side-du-jour is an "evil empire" or an "axis of evil", and "you're with us or you're against us". It's no surprise that the abortion issue is framed as between "pro-life" - an absolute, final position - and "pro-choice" - a position which implies future decisions. And observe the epithets used against the Left: "flip-flop", "wishy-washy".
Sure, there are dogmatists on both sides, but the above quotes are used by those who lead the conservative cause in the U.S. Similar quotes out of, say, leading Democrats are much harder to come by.
That's probably because the vast majority of the US right (at least) are either authoritarian leaders or authoritarian followers (more of the latter than the former). You'd be hard-pressed to find many real leftish authoritarians in the US; then again, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in the US who was left of centre-right in a sane political system (that is, one where the Overton window of political discourse hasn't been pulled hard to the right for the past three decades or so).
Progressives in the US generally can't come to a unanimous consensus on what to have for lunch, let alone policy positions, which is generally why they get steamrollered by the hard right -- there are entirely too many people in the US who will vote for someone who espouses a clearly-articulated position on that basis alone, never minding what the policy proposals actually are. (The fact that most progressive policy proposals can't be boiled down into bumperstickerish sound bites only complicates the problem.)
In some ways, it's easier to be a Canadian leftist (not that there are many genuine leftists in the US -- there aren't, but I am a Canadian leftist): There are some pretty clearly defined "left" positions in the Canadian political discourse, some of which are not, in fact, "left" positions anywhere else. (Is there another country in the world where a sort of knee-jerk patriotism is a genuinely left position? Is there another country in the world where the political right genuinely despises its own country and wants to be part of another one?)
(no subject)
Sure, there are dogmatists on both sides, but the above quotes are used by those who lead the conservative cause in the U.S. Similar quotes out of, say, leading Democrats are much harder to come by.
(no subject)
Progressives in the US generally can't come to a unanimous consensus on what to have for lunch, let alone policy positions, which is generally why they get steamrollered by the hard right -- there are entirely too many people in the US who will vote for someone who espouses a clearly-articulated position on that basis alone, never minding what the policy proposals actually are. (The fact that most progressive policy proposals can't be boiled down into bumperstickerish sound bites only complicates the problem.)
In some ways, it's easier to be a Canadian leftist (not that there are many genuine leftists in the US -- there aren't, but I am a Canadian leftist): There are some pretty clearly defined "left" positions in the Canadian political discourse, some of which are not, in fact, "left" positions anywhere else. (Is there another country in the world where a sort of knee-jerk patriotism is a genuinely left position? Is there another country in the world where the political right genuinely despises its own country and wants to be part of another one?)