How Far Is "Far Left"?

That's a question I have been asking myself for quite a while now.

Every time you hear someone within the Modern American Right use the term "Far Left", you have to look at the person using it and then ask yourself what their metric is for "Centrist" first.

It's quite the dizzying experience, as there is no true metric for this at all - it's just a talking point that sounds great and apparently tests well with the viewing audience of Fox"News" and conservative talk radio and blogs.

It's with that in mind that I never use the term "Far Right", as that would make as much sense as my political adversaries using the alternate term. I have opted for the more honest and encompassing phrase "Modern American Right". And while some may claim that that term is far too "general", I would offer that it is both accurate and historic based on our current socio-political climate.

But back to the definition at hand...........

I first started considering how the Modern American Right would define this back when Bush was still occupying the White House while watching Bill O'Reilly - as he was want to use the term during literally every segment of his program, and still does to this day.

His style is so dry and predictably flaccid that it became apparent that he would even call my grandmother - at the time an 88 year old woman that new nothing but farm life in Western Kentucky who just happened changed her political alignment sometime after Reagan's re-election but to this day is still one of the more conservative women I have ever known - a member of the "Far Left".

Then there's Glenn Beck......

Honestly, I think he would call his own children "Far Left" if they even wanted him to rent "Where The Wild Things Are" on DVD.

So, what about Sean Hannity? Sarah Palin? Fox and Friends? Heck, Neil Cavuto?

The truth of the matter is that the Modern American Right can't define that term. But I can.

"Far Left" simply means that any person who does not think Fox"News" is a legitimate source of news, thinks that women have the right to choose, thinks that workers have the right to organize, thinks that healthcare is a right, thinks that..............well, you see where this is going, don't you.

Anyone that even modestly disagrees with the Modern American Right will be labeled as a fringe extremist that is obviously hell-bent on tossing the country into the ever burning abyss of fire and damnation. And that's putting it mildly.

Are their sub-classifications of both Left and Right political alignment? Of course, but you aren't going to get that from Fox or even from some Left/Progressive sources. The reason is that, all too often, we get enraptured with the idea that painting something as "extreme" will elevate our own point of view. And for the Modern American Right, they are champs at distorting whom their socio-political opposites are.