[40yearoldman]

I kind of think it is a line. Think of a tire rolling over the road. We move left and we move right. With a cycle of left right left right.

We will always have conservative views with perspective to the current status. And we will always have progressive or liberal views with perspective to the current status. As we roll one way or the other we will find our self in interesting places we thought not possible.

On top of all of that people of all political affiliation use laws to short slightly achieve goals with results in unexpected outcomes. This is what keeps the tire rolling left and right.

The solution? Logical thought and collaboration excluding those whom hold positions of political power.

[growingkittens]

Your example is multidimensional: there's left, right, and forward. And it involves a cycle. :)

"Conservative" vs. "progressive" is a more useful concept than left and right, but still paints a limited picture. The meaning also varies greatly from person to person, making these words inadequate.

If we define conservative as "traditional," there is only one major objective: return to past equilibrium. If we define progressive literally as "progress," there are many directions to go, many paths to follow, many lines to draw. These are not balanced categories.