Why are democrats or liberals called "left" while Republicans or Conservatives called "right"?

Question

While independents are not called "Middle"

Answer 1

The terms come from France, actually.

In the French Legislative Assembly (between 1789 and 1791), things were at a boiling point. Insurrection was building into what would become the full-scale guillotining of the French Revolution. The King had been trying to quiet things down by agreeing to develop a new constitution for France. But things were not going entirely well.

As often happens in times of crisis, people tended to clump together into groups of similar ideas. Even politicians. In that assembly, all the loyal supporters of the current establishment ended up huddling on the right-hand side of the hall, while those elements who wanted to tear down the old order completely and construct a new one were clumped on the left. The French began to refer to a person's political inclinations on the basis of where he was sitting that day in the assembly, and the trend caught on.

Thus conservatives are 'on the right', and those who are more liberal are 'on the left'. It's come to be thought of as a spectrum now, so you can be a left-leaning conservative or a right-leaning liberal and so on. People aren't often referred to as middle-of-the-road probably for the same reason now as then - as far as both sides are concerned, either you're part of the solution or you're part of the problem!

Answer 2

Dr. Why is correct. It does come from France. In the days when a monarch shared certain powers with representatives, the left wing of one chamber or another was occupied by middle class representatives, and the right wing was occupied by representatives of clergy and the nobility.
It's quite outdated and oversimplifies politics today, but it's easier for talking heads to say left or right than explain a candidates politics.

Answer 3

It would appear that this is an outgrowth of the seating arrangement in the Senate and Congress, with the Democrats sitting on the left side of the chamber, and the Republicans sitting to the right.

Answer 4

That's just the way things fall upon the horizontal political spectrum taught at most colleges. It goes from right to left, with more conservative views on the right, liberal views on the left, and undecided and opinionated views in the middle

Answer 5

It's all semantics. Right. Left. North. South. Middle. Conservatives could have just as easily been left and Liberals right. The point is that their ideologies are polarized.

Answer 6

Moderates are called Middle of the Road. Independents.can fall anywhere on the political spectrum.

Answer 7

in the US independents typically fall to the far left of the spectrum

Bernie Sanders(I - VT) for example, while officially an independant, usually votes with the Dems, and is a far left socialist

Answer 8

maximum individuals sense that their own political beliefs are logical and sensible. maximum individuals sense that smart human beings viewing an same info and circumstances that they see might want to come to an same logical conclusions. even as human beings come to diverse conclusions, that is therefor organic to anticipate the the different individual is inaccurate because they are mentally defective or thoroughly uninformed. Democrats and liberals make an same assumptions about conservative and republicans.

Answer 9

It is believed to date back to early Marxism.

Conservatives sat to the right of the speaker and Liberals sat on the left.

Answer 10

It is just a way to show the vast differences in both parties. They are at both ends of the spectrum.