Maggie's Farm

Conservative thought has always been "Right" in the sense that the right hand was always considered "good" while the left was not. Things on the "Right" are usually standard, typical, acceptable.
Consider the Rive Gauche (Left Bank), which was hip and trendy, but outcast at the same time. Bohemianism, excessive behaviors were associated with "Left" behavior.

Hitler was called "Right" by many because of the lack of understanding of Fascism. Fascism today is viewed as the state barging in the door and taking you to jail or worse for thinking the wrong way. Nothing is further from the truth. Fascism is an economic policy whereby private ownership of the means of production are overseen by political dictate. You may own the factory - but you'll build what we tell you to build.

Ayn Rand, correctly, saw this as nothing more than DE FACTO Socialism, indeed Hitler himself knew this - which is why he considered Communists and Socialists his enemy. They engaged forms of democracy to achieve their goals, a risk he couldn't allow.

But they were bedfellows, nonetheless.

The political spectrum is a circle, rather than a line. Humans like to think in a linear fashion. We fear complex, non-linear behaviors. Asymmetrical warfare is poorly understood by the armchair general - it's abhorrent and considered chaotic and bordering on terror by amateurs. The same is true of the market. Ask anyone how they feel when prices are falling and it's "the market is broken". But when it rises, "the market is working great". Our linear minds work this way because it suits us. It's incorrect, of course, but this is where politics comes in.

A TRULY GOOD politician would realize this, and speak to it...use it to his advantage to show the poor thought patterns of the left. The left, in their desire for perfection and Utopia, think in a fashion FAR TOO LINEAR.
The Right, less so.
Libertarians, by their nature, are probably the truest non-linear thinkers. They believe in pure freedom and the rights of man. It's a scary proposition, alot of chaos wrapped up in it. But it works every time it's applied because of the invisible hand......(which is said to "not work" even as it doles out perceived slights).

Communists, or anyone who believes in "economic fairness" (LOL, now THERE'S a funny term) are not clear thinkers.
The idea that any kind of fairness exists beyond natural rights and freedoms is absurd. Fairness in economics is accrued by action and behavior....not legislation, regulation and dictate. These things create black markets - increasing the unfairness overall.

no, the "Left" is a very old term and has little to do with our Congress and where they sit.

If it did, the French would never have adopted the term.

"Left" as a concept of something different comes from left and right handedness.
Right was traditional, "normal".
Left was an aberration.