Cleon Skousen, in his book The 5000 Year Leap, explains that the founders did not have the same view of right and left that we do. Here is how we commonly think of left and right today:
Left = Liberal/Socialist, Right = Conservative/fascist.
Conservatives at the time of the founders were supporters of royalty. Liberals of those bygone days would not recognize today's dictatorial, doctrinaire liberalism. Indeed, our founders were the classic free-thinking liberals. They were rebels against the crown after all.
We keep talking about right and left in this country, and that has it's place, but what we should really be talking about is the founders' left and right:
Left = Anarchy, Right = Tyranny
Look at the picture. That is how the founders saw right and left. The tyranny of an absolute ruler lay at one end, and stateless anarchy is found at the opposite extreme. The Constitution blazes a path between the two extremes. Modern-day left and right, Republicans and Democrats, Socialists and fascists, can both be found clawing and scratching for power at the Tyranny end of the arrow. Meanwhile, here we stand, trying to pull the thing back towards the middle.
Politics is about power and who gets to wield it. It doesn't matter if your party is in or out of power. If they are stacking law upon law, you are still powerless.
