Professor Trotsky,
When it comes to Communism, Fascism, Islamism (is that a word?
), or any other "ism" where the government holds absolute power over its people, there is no left or right ... there is only tyranny. As you say, the "left vs. right" meme is nothing but a deception. The true distinction is whether a government is controlled by free and independent citizens (government of the people, by the people, for the people) or if it controls the people by denying them their inalienable rights. Leftists subscribe to and believe in all-powerful government that controls the people. Conservatives subscribe to and believe in limited government that is subservient to the inalienable rights of the people. Therefore, leftists are the purveyors of Communism, Fascism, and now, quixotically, even Islamism, while Conservatives are the supporters of democratic principles that are the antithesis of all these nefarious "isms."
I know I am preaching to the choir, here, but I needed to say it, nonetheless.
Thanks ... I'll get off my soapbox, now.
B.

The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence