What left wingers like about right wing ideologies

[FireDragon76]

I think there's a need for some consistency of terms.

Or perhaps you can clarify which "deal-breaker" issue stances would preclude someone from being considered "left-leaning"

With regards to contemporary usage of the terms "left" and "right" in the US. My being pro-choice, in favor of marijuana legalization, in favor of same-sex rights, and in favor of single-payer healthcare over what we have now would be considered "left" values.

In the US it is rare to find a genuine leftist. You're more likely to find Leftist politics among young people, now days, however. McCarthyism did a great deal to stifle genuine leftist politics in this country for generations.

...then most people living the first world be hard-pressed to consider themselves on "the left" by those standards. Even the Scandinavian countries (whom many people falsely refer to as socialist when they're actually market economies with just a few expanded social safety nets) could theoretically be considered "moderate-right" by those standards

That's actually true for Scandinavian countries. Like most other European countries, they are liberal democracies with a plurality of political perspectives.

I would describe countries like Norway, Sweden, or Denmark, overall, as somewhat more consensus-based and collectivist than what we in the US think of as "western culture" (owing to those countries having ethics rooted in Lutheranism). That only seems "socialist" if you come from the Anglo-American world, where the good of society is seen as magically bound up with individual self-interest.

 

[9Rock9]

Remarkable post. Congratulations.

That is why you cannot find a home in today's GOP, which has become dominated by the social conservatism of the Christian Right.

I feel like the GOP is actually less socially conservative and religious than it was until recently.

Abortion is probably the only socially conservative hill that many Republicans will die on.

While the majority may oppose same sex marriages or drug legalization, the percentage of those supporting the legalization of those two things is growing and is lot higher than it used to be, with more Republicans starting to come around to it.