The thing is, “less conservative” doesn’t actually mean anything in the US. “Conservative” and “liberal” are just pointers to the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively, which in turn are semi-permanent coalitions of people with vastly different (and often incompatible) ideologies, that end up being used for color politics. There isn’t really a spectrum, but you can pretend there is—if you have 390 Green beliefs and 100 Blue beliefs, then you’re clearly a Moderate Green (aquamarine?).
Whereas in most of Europe, parties actually represent ideologies to some extent, and so ideological terms don’t get corrupted so much in favor of talking about the platform of a party. This is often because temporary coalitions happen between political parties, instead of within them.
England is a notable exception to this—it has more-or-less two parties, and they pretend to fall on a “political spectrum” like the US parties; thus, they even tend to echo US meaningless political rhetoric.
Whereas in most of Europe, parties actually represent ideologies to some extent, and so ideological terms don’t get corrupted so much in favor of talking about the platform of a party. This is often because temporary coalitions happen between political parties, instead of within them.
At least in Italy, “It’s a complete mess” would be a more accurate (though less precise) description than that.
The thing is, “less conservative” doesn’t actually mean anything in the US. “Conservative” and “liberal” are just pointers to the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively, which in turn are semi-permanent coalitions of people with vastly different (and often incompatible) ideologies, that end up being used for color politics. There isn’t really a spectrum, but you can pretend there is—if you have 390 Green beliefs and 100 Blue beliefs, then you’re clearly a Moderate Green (aquamarine?).
Whereas in most of Europe, parties actually represent ideologies to some extent, and so ideological terms don’t get corrupted so much in favor of talking about the platform of a party. This is often because temporary coalitions happen between political parties, instead of within them.
England is a notable exception to this—it has more-or-less two parties, and they pretend to fall on a “political spectrum” like the US parties; thus, they even tend to echo US meaningless political rhetoric.
At least in Italy, “It’s a complete mess” would be a more accurate (though less precise) description than that.
Agreed.