However, the real problem is: What is another axis? (And there could be more than one.) The late Christopher Lasch, whose ideas will appear here often, suggested two other axes. He began by suggesting the libertarians and communitarians had common cause with other such across the right-left divide. As a man of the left, Lasch felt a strong sympathy for the communitarian pull of many social conservatives. Later, in his book The True and Only Heaven, Lasch suggested that a believe in infinite progress, on both right and left, was a problem, leaving progressive conservatives (such as many free market enthusiasts), as distressed in power (he was writing during the Reagan administration) as the progressive liberals. Lasch then went through American history seeking a tradition of "Civic Republicanism" which combined a hope (distinguished from progressive "optimism") of human improvement with a stern acceptance of the limitations of progress.
There are even some political activists who cross up the usual labels. The wife of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is an anti-abortion feminist in word and deed. A former mayor of Boston, Ray Flynn, is now a conservative Catholic radio commentator with all that implies, but as a politician would describe himself as a "practically a Leninist" on housing policy. I admire both of these principled people for what they have accomplished, and where I disagree with each of them, would consider them the best possible kind of opponent.
