Trego's Mountain Ear

I’ve never been too sure about political sides like right and left, conservative and liberal, or Republican and Democrat. As I’ve started my research on buying politicians, I’m finding a bizarre clarity – there are two sides, and the sides are inside and outside.

It makes no difference if I’m right or left – if I’m outside, politics is something that happens to me. I’m rural by choice – which means my government experience begins with paying taxes and ends in some variant of an authority figure deciding what I should do. I remember the last day of Obama’s administration, when the director of Fish and Wildlife issued order 219, banning the use of lead bullets on all federal lands. When you’re outside – like rural residents of a county where ¾ of the land is Forest Service, government happens to you, not for you. Fortunately order 219 didn’t last long – but it seemed like a malicious way to treat rural people who are outside.

At the county level, it can be where your residence is. Libby, with the courthouse and seat of county government, has a higher percentage of government insiders than the more remote north county. Government services are easier to use when you live close by – when you’re remote, you hope to be left alone. Most rural folks are outside.

I might have thought myself an insider when I was invited to talk with legislative committees about my specialties – but in retrospect, when my testimony supported doing what they wanted to do, everything was smiles and nods. If my facts differed from the legislators desire, much less so. Not having a dog in the fight, I was at best an expert whose testimony supported the conclusions that were already made.

I can’t make a lot of sense in classifying the national socialists as right wingers while the international socialists are left wingers. Each group seems closer to the other than to me. Then again, insiders versus an outsider.

Where Did the Terms ‘Left Wing’ and ‘Right Wing’ Come From? | HISTORY Shows the origin of right and left in France:

“The split dates to the summer of 1789, when members of the French National Assembly met to begin drafting a constitution. The delegates were deeply divided over the issue of how much authority King Louis XVI should have, and as the debate raged, the two main factions each staked out territory in the assembly hall. The anti-royalist revolutionaries seated themselves to the presiding officer’s left, while the more conservative, aristocratic supporters of the monarchy gathered to the right.”

So if being anti-royalist is the qualification for being left-wing, I’m a leftist.  I admit, I had a soft spot for Queen Elizabeth – but she’s gone, and it’s kind of hard to transfer that soft spot to Charles.  Still, that family is pretty much the illustration for a bunch of government insiders – and watching Prince Andrew and Prince Harry illustrates how the move from insider to outsider occurs.  As I think about it, historically we went through a time of revolution, when government was taken from these ultimate insiders, then changed to various forms of democracies and republics which a new bunch of insiders took over.  No big thing – I’ve read about the first King Charles and his problems with Oliver Cromwell