Cease Using the Political Left-Right Jargon
By Uriah J. Fields

Dare Americans, especially Democrats, to continue
use the left-right jargon to declare politically their
positions and ideologies as Democrats and
Republicans.
       Much too long Democrats have used left
and Republicans have used right to describe
themselves and each other. The terms left and right
automatically conjure in the minds of people that
Republicans  are moral but Democrats are left
and immoral or amoral. For a certainty, less moral
than the Republicans. Consequently, people on the
left have to prove they are moral or right while those
on the right are likely to be accepted as being right
and moral. Language defines and is important.
     The terms "left" and "right" classification of
political ideologies first appeared during the
French Revolution in 1789. Since then these terms
have been used to indicate the positions of
opposing idelologies, especially political ideologies.
     In this discourse the focus is on the
contemporary usage of left and right, with regard to
Democrats and Republicans in the United States.
Politically speaking, as stated earlier, the term left
refers to Democrats and the term right refers to
Republicans.
     This writer admonishes Democrats to name
themselves and cease using the term left to
describe themselves and right to describe
Republicans. In this regard, Democrats can
learn from African Americans who were named
by white Europeans who migrated to what  became
America, Negroes, Colored and later Minority.
After using these names for nearly three hundred
and fifty years they named themselves African
Americans and Americans of African descent. Let
me add,  "Black," is also an acceptable name
when addressing white racism.
    Let me acknowledge that those called left
are  also  called  Liberals   and Progressives
and those called right are also called Republicans
and  Conservatives.
        I call on Democrats to henceforth declare
that their name is Progressives and the name for
Republicans are Conservatives. And to cease and
desist using left and right. Progressives have
promoted change while Conservatives have been
for maintaining the status quo. It was Progrsssives,
not Conservatives, who opposed slavery,
segregation and Jim Crowism; fought and some
whites as well  as blacks died in the 1960s
helping to secure the right for Blacks to vote in the
South. Some white progressives died in my native
state of Alabama.
        Unlike Conservatives, Progressives are
concerned about change that promotes justice
and equality, aiding people in poverty,
refusing to increase the military budget at the
expense of neglecting education at a time when
America is spending more on the military than the
next ten countries combined; refusing to support
subsistence farming and family farms when there
are many homeless  people, and opposing
reduction in taxes for corporations and wealthy
people who should be paying higher taxes to close
the gap between the rich and poor.
     Unlike Progressives, Conservaties are engaged
in gerrymandering and enacting  ID state laws to
prevent black people and some other people,
referred to as people of color, from voting. It
should be as easy for a person to vote as it is to
buy food.  A person should be deemed eligible to
vote when he is eighteen years of age. At that
age he can enlist or be drafted into the military
As a matter of record, I enlisted in the Army two
years before the Korean War, several days before
I was eighteen years old.
      No more LEFT and RIGHT!  Instead,
PROGRESSIVES AND CONSERVATIVES. If there
is to be a "more perfect union," Progressives, not
Conservatives, will accomplish it.
     Let me close by stating emphatically and
without hesitation that President Donald Trump is
not a Progressive or Conservative. Politically
speaking, his appropriate name is the matter for
a future discourse.

Copyright 2018 by Uriah J. Fields