James Moore Poet Narrative

Notes About The Poem

The Real Left-Right Divide

(“Halves of a Whole”, 2019, original encaustic)

The Real Left/Right Divide

I consider myself a “classical liberal” 
Which means I’m a freedom loving
‘Live and let live’ kind of guy.
And that puts me firmly on the Right.

It also marks me as a “conservative”
In today’s political world
Because live and let live doesn’t mean
Change for the sake of change to better the world.

But then I compare myself to someone like Mike Pence,
A known conservative, yet unlike me,
One of the Left, like progressive illiberals,
Because he is clearly a Big Government kind of guy.

It’s a confusing paradox 
That in the real world today
You can have liberals and conservatives
On both the Right and Left!

What this shows is simply
The political spectrum of big and little government
Is not the same as the moral compass
Of traditional and progressive values.

What divides the Left and Right
What is embodied by big and little government
Is the difference between
Compulsion and freedom, tyranny and liberty.

(8/6/25)

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