[Polybius]

Fascism and communism are horrifically and historically very different. And the traditional model of communism and fascism wrapping around the spectrum at totalitarian ends is not going to go away because a few political scientists want to simplify it.

Don't you think that it is the ultimate simplification to arbitrarily categorize the Communist and National Socialist ideologies into the "Left" and "Right" categories that have meant different things every 50 years ever since the terms were coined during the French Revolution?

In 1820's Europe, a member of a Masonic Lodge praising the Constitutional form of government was considered a radical Leftist and the United States of America was considered the most Left-wing nation on the Planet.

During the fall of the Soviet Union, the American Liberal media labelled the Soviet Communist die-hards as "Right-wing".

Originally, "Right" wing meant a supporter of absolute monarchy by divine right who denied the very existence of sovereignty deriving from the consent of the governed.

"Left" wing originally meant a supporter of the individual Liberty.

Now, Left vs Right traditionally mean whatever the political writer wants it to mean.

The same America Liberal media that labelled Ronald Reagan as "Right-wing" because he was "Conservative" in wanting to preserve traditional American values and was extremely anti-Communist saw no irony whatsoever in labelling the Soviet die-hards during the fall of the Soviet Union as "Right-wing" because they were "Conservative" in wanting to preserve traditional Communist values.

If you traditionally define "Right" vs "Left" as State Absolutism vs Individual Rights and Liberties, the both Communism and National Socialism are Right-wing ideologies.

The absolute monarchs of the ancien regime may have invoked "By the Grace of God" and used "France/Britain/Spain" as the boggeyman. The Communists may have invoked "For the Benefit of the Proleteriat" and used "the Capitalists and the Fascists" as the boggeyman. The National Socialism may have invoked "For the Fatherland" and used "the Jews, the Communists and the Liberal Democracies" as the boogeyman.

However, those are all merely rationilizations for exactly the same political bottom line: Absolute power by a political oligarchy that is maitained by force of arms.

Same Church. Different pews.

That, of course, makes most of us on Free Republic traditional Left-wingers which is, in the original meanings of the terms, where the United States has always been since someone got the bright idea to label all political ideology through the prism of the seating arrangement of the French Estates General.

[risk]

I agree that left and right are different depending on the political milieu. But it doesn't change the historic fact that within the nations we are discussing, left meant communist and right meant Nazi. Both Nazis and communists saw each other as being on the right and the left, and they understood why. Those parties had fundamentally different means to achieve state control, and they knew what the differences were, and outside observers knew what the differences were.

But you're welcome to specify any arbitrary spectrum for the sake of discussion, and as you point out, that's what people have been doing all along.