Oh, you're not American?

Nope

Then it's strange that you should focus so heavily on American politics. Maybe because that makes things much easier; the US has the worst conservative party in the Western world, after all...

Ist it  really that odd that I focus a lot of my attention on what is currently the most powerful and influential country in the world?

Trade unions aren't inherently bad, but they've very often been used to hold both employers and governments to ransom, and their political goals tend to be "big government" goals.

They also have a habit of bullying their members into supporting actions they don't agree with, and they often refuse to allow people to work for whoever they're striking against. This goes dead againt concepts of individual liberty and the free market.

Indeed, I never claimed that the left wing want a free market either. Marx certainly didn't, and (despite how his messege was warped) he was very left wing. What I claimed is that the right wing wants the government to crush the poor, and the left want the government to crush the rich.

It's interesting that you should bring up Thatcher. At the time she took power, union leaders in Britain were almost tyrants; they were close to ruling the country as an oligrachy. The people were damned sick of them, and they showed their support for Thatcher in the ballot box.

I never claimed that the left was better, or more popular than the right. I am simply saying what are typically left and right beliefs. If you really want to get into a discussion as to whether the left or right is better, or about corruption in the unions in the pre Thatcher age, I would be very interested to have that discussion. But this is not the place to have that discussion.

Of course, no left-wing government would oppose such activity; they need the union votes.

Just as no right wing government could support gay marriage, or abortion. They need the church votes.

Are you talking abot making tax more equal and refusing to punish the wealthy for their success?

Again, I am not saying which is better, worse, or more or less fair. I am simply saying that the right wing try to increase taxes on the poor (or lower them on the rich), while the left try to do exactly the opposite. It just reinforces my point that the right wing is the party that benefits the 1%, and the left benefits the 99%. That is the left, right divide/. It is not a small/large government divide.

Some of us think it's quite unfair that some pay so much more tax than other, so we support relatively flat rates.

And I am not trying to stop you from doing so, merely pointing out that doing so will result in you being associated with the right, and that those voting similarly to you will for the most part be right wing.

Of course, Bush took things too far, but if you're going to take his as the archetypal right-wing politician, I'm going to take Stalin and Mao to be the archetypal left-wing politicians. It's only fair.

And yet they aren't left wing at all. If you look at their policies, they bear extremely little resemblance to those of Marx.

Now, if you left-wingers love the poor so much, why do you always starve them to death?

Pardon?

Now the Democrats are right-wing? This is where I stop taking you seriously.

Yes, they are. The democrats are fairly similar to the Australian liberal party, which is commonly accepted as a right wing party. Sure, they are close to central, but they are still right wing.

Look all over Europe. Our continent has been almost universally left-wing for decades, and things seem to be much more skewed in favour of the big business status quo here than they are in the US.

Not sure I believe this, as an example

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GINIretouchedcolors.png

If you want a classic example of a corrupt left-wing government looking after its friends, look at the British Labour party. I could go on for days about the horrible things they've done...

Again, not claiming the left wing is better, or less corrupt. Many who claim to be left wing, and many who are actually left wing are corrupt. Just as many in the right wing are corrupt.

How about I respond by pointing out that there's a big difference between "The Republican Party in the United States in 2011" and "right-wing politics"?

You don't seem to know anything about politics outside of your own country and this current time period. Based on my experience, I could well say that left-wing governments are all about supporting their friends in big business at the expense of everyone else. That's what they've been doing all over Europe for the past few decades. Except Iceland, where there isn't enough money for the taxpayer to bail out the banks, and where the government would, no doubt, face a violent revolution if they even tried.

Except the fact that the total burden of taxes in America for the top 1% is higher today than at any point in the past 60 years.