The stunning end of the left and right

A metaphor meant to enhance our clarity of thinking, the directional image is fast becoming a hindrance to it. That may mean the metaphor needs to be scrapped and replaced by another.

The muddled middle.
(Image credit: iStock)

"Left" and "right" are quickly losing all political meaning.

The Republican president-elect is now linked arm-in-arm with conservatives Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin in praise of cyber-anarchist Julian Assange's attacks on our own country's intelligence services. This has got to be the surest sign yet that we have entered a new ideological era in which the old categories and assumptions simply do not apply.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.