The Horseshoe is Real

Left and Right are Essentially the Same

Following years of activism in the Labour Party, I found myself isolated and wondering what kind of people I had devoted years of my life to. I thought they believed what I believed; that we should organise society in a way that allows everyone a chance at a decent life, one of freedom and opportunity where one’s efforts achieve results and boost their standing. I thought they believed, as I did, that people should be equal before the law, everyone should be entitled to an education, and that the truth should be our guiding light, our starting point. I found out that this was not the case. Instead, the left believed in multiculturalism (anti-white hate mixed with racial division), sharia law (theocracy meets misogyny meets brutality), and that the truth was an inconvenience that must be covered up to protect the power of the powerful. So disillusioned with the lack of principle, I moved on and found myself on the right – a place I later discovered I didn’t belong.

I soon understood that the right is the same as the left in all but the most superficial ways. Neither is interested in the truth, and neither is interested in freedom. Both sides of the political divide want to impose their views and values on everyone, hiding whatever truth stands in the way, and attacking those who point out that truth. There is no better way of demonstrating this than with an examination of the US President Donald Trump and his devoted followers.

For years, I heard people on the right say they supported free speech, as I do. But they don’t, and that is becoming increasingly clear. Like the left, the right only supports the speech that helps them maintain their power and control. When the left hears speech unsupportive of their goals, they label the speaker a racist or a fascist. When the right hears speech unsupportive of its goals, it responds with accusations of “traitor,” “liar,” or, where Donald Trump is concerned, “Trump derangement syndrome.” To be clear, the Trump-right says you are “deranged” if you point out the truth.

Inconsistency in values is also very clear on both the left and the right. Under the Trump administration, an unelected billionaire is taking money from the very poorest, ostensibly with the aim of reducing government spending. Trump’s working-class supporters still don’t seem to realise that Elon Musk is removing money from their pockets while putting more into his own. Are they aware of the amount of money Musk gets from the American federal government? Some estimates say $8 million per day. Yet he is “saving money” by cutting off social welfare benefits to the poor. Few mention this, certainly not in the mainstream media, but also in Christian circles. Right-wing Christians overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump, and as someone who is not religious and looks at this from the outside, I have to ask which Christianity they believe they are following. Jesus said nothing about abortion or homosexuality, but did specifically state that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than the rich to enter heaven. Christians therefore have given control of America to men that Jesus clearly stated would not be permitted to enter heaven.

These Christians consider themselves “pro-life,” allowing Trump to exploit their fierce opposition to abortion. However, one will find that the “pro-life” faction is often wholly opposed to universal healthcare, even though Jesus called on them to care for the poor and the sick. My question is, how on earth can you be “pro-life” while opposing healthcare for the poor? “Pro-life” activists, if they were consistent, would also be vehemently anti-war and against the death penalty, but neither is usually the case. The truth is they are not “pro-life” but anti-abortion. This is not to protect the lives of children (they are cutting off aid to the poorest children), but because, in the name of “family values,” they wish to reduce a woman’s status to one that is lower than a developing zygote. One would assume therefore that “family values” were important to such people, but not where Donald Trump or Elon Musk are concerned. Both have several children with different women. Trump is a serial adulterer who spent years hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein and has been accused of sexual assault by numerous women. What happened to family values?

One of the most egregious and obvious examples of hypocrisy and inconsistency from the Trump camp is that of free speech. JD Vance recently came to Europe to lecture us on freedom of speech. This is beyond jaw-dropping. While there are certainly problems with free speech on our continent, we are not led by people openly threatening to shut down critical media outlets. Vance attacked us for lack of free speech while working for a President who sued a small Iowa newspaper for printing a poll suggesting he wouldn’t win the election. He sued ABC news and wants 60 Minutes taken off the air. He refused to allow reporters from Associated Press to enter the White House because they referred to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Mexico. While JD Vance stood up in Germany to declare that jailing reporters is a threat to free speech (even though reporters are not actually jailed in Germany), Elon Musk tweeted that 60 Minutes journalists should receive lengthy prison sentences for editing an interview with Kamala Harris that appeared to favour her.

“Trump is not a dictator, you have Trump Derangement Syndrome.” This is what people told me when I said Trump would be a dictator. My guess? Such people have no idea what a dictator is, and if they did, they wouldn’t care because they want a dictator but haven’t the courage to admit it. What does a dictator do? Firstly, he puts himself above the law and ignores all the checks and balances aimed at limiting the power of any one individual. In America, that’s the Constitution, and Trump is busily finding ways to get around it. He recently tweeted the words of Napoleon, stating that “saving the country” means he cannot be a lawbreaker. This is dictatorship, but his fans don’t see it or don’t care.

I wonder also which America Trump believes he is saving. I wonder what his “patriotic” supporters think they are fighting to “save.” Is it still America when the Founding Fathers are ignored, and the Constitution rendered an inconvenience? The Founding Fathers of the United States wrote the Constitution with the express intent of limiting the power of the President, but Trump has openly expressed contempt for that idea. So, what is America? What are the “patriots” fighting for?

I could go on and on. Here in the UK for instance, the right is up in arms about left-wing Prime Minister Keir Starmer cutting payments to the poor and elderly and cracking down on free speech. The same people support Trump and Musk, who are cutting payments to the poor and elderly and cracking down on free speech.

While I’m bewildered by the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of politics, one thing I know for sure is that the truth is not welcome in the political arena. It is centred on groupthink. I agree with the right on immigration and Islam for instance (though for different reasons) and therefore I am expected to agree with everything else the right believes in, or I’ll be excluded from the group. On the left, the same applies. I agree with the left on universal healthcare, therefore I must agree about open borders, or the Palestinians, or the gender cult, or I will likewise be excluded from the group.

It's known as the horseshoe – the theory that left and right eventually meet in the middle because, in essence, they are the same. The left-right divide is in itself a falsity and distracts from the real division; the one between the powerful and the powerless. My mother once said, “no matter who you vote for, you still end up with the bloody government.” This is very wise, because whether we vote for the left or the right, we end up with an elite at the top that takes and takes and takes from the majority at the bottom.

Perhaps this is merely human nature. Perhaps it is normal for people on the bottom to doff their caps to the elite, believing themselves inferior. If that’s true, and I believe it is, then that’s what we must face if we are ever to make the world fairer and freer.