The French Revolution perhaps provided the best definition as the origional coiners of the terms. The Left is for radical change and the Right is for evolutionary change. That would put mainstream politics decidedly on the right wing side of the political spectrum. The left wing is a rather motly collection including many anarchists, communists and nazis, yet many of the same types are decidedly right wing. A historical anecdote would be the Bucharin-Rykov wing of the Bolshevik party in the late twenties. They were right wing while Stalin was left wing. Yet, Bucharin would be considered quite radical for today's bean counting politics. This is, of course, confusing to y'all because your all a bunch of stupid college kids. -- Cheers!