Imperial monarchies can transform into constitutional monarchies through democratization, with the progressive, or left, and conservative, or right, camps ruling by choice. Some imperial monarchies directly turn into “people’s democratic dictatorships” through communist revolutions, which are just communist dictatorships in practice. Based on leftist ideology, these so-called “people’s democracies” become communist autocratic regimes. Both left-wing and right-wing political parties have the potential to become authoritarian and totalitarian.
The right-wing regime of Adolf Hitler was a historical catastrophe, but was the left-wing regime of Joseph Stalin not also a historical catastrophe? And what about communist China under Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) rule? Whether right or left, only in a true democratic system can the meaning and value of progressivism and conservatism be realized.
Some people think that being leftist is politically correct, but much like the right-wing views of political correctness, this is a form of dogmatic thinking that illustrates a cognitive blind spot.
A country, by nature, might be conservative and right-leaning because of its vertical values and boundaries, while progressive leftist values exist in society to regulate the excesses of these vertical values. Only a society that is compatible with both left-wing and right-wing ideologies has the ability to shape a normal nation.
Originally, communism was able to grow and thrive as a fight against capitalism, but it can only rule by totalitarianism and autocracy and is not in line with rational economic principles. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was able to achieve a level of economic prosperity through capitalist reforms, but, as the nature of its rule was essentially unchanged, such prosperity cannot be sustained. The communist slogan “Workers of the world, unite” is meaningless rhetoric due to the walls blocking off the nation, and nationalism is still the guiding principle of communist China.
US President Donald Trump is a conservative, right-wing politician. His slogan “Make America Great Again” fully reflects vertical national values. The US has no history of aggressive colonization. However, just like most former colonial powers, it is facing immigration issues and the strike against leftism, progressivism and other horizontal values. If we take Sigmund Freud’s theory of personality development as an analogy, the US has developed from the “id,” the instinctual self, to the “ego,” the rational self, but has not yet reached the “superego,” the moral and higher self.
Perhaps the US has lost its magnanimity in this way; nonetheless, it is still a democracy ruled by law. Moreover, the US is a federation that grants a high degree of autonomy to its states’ governments. As such, the US’ democratic rule of law should cure its “Trump syndrome” eventually — unlike the People’s Republic of China, whose one-party dictatorship is endless, while democracy appears hopeless.
For Taiwan to become a normal nation, it must have both left-wing and right-wing political parties instead of constantly swinging between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) contradictory stance of being both pro-communist and anti-communist is detrimental not only for Taiwan, but also for the Chinese people, as it only strengthens the CCP’s authoritarianism.
Taiwanese must uphold democratic beliefs and strengthen the rule of law to remain an independent and normal nation, separate from China.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Source: Taipei Times - Editorials 2025/02/08
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