Disjointed Spectrums

The GREEN-centered and PURPLE-centered full spectrums create narratives that favor some kind of centrist compromise. Two disjointed spectrums can be created by combining the left half of one full spectrum with the right half of the other. Unlike the full spectrums, these two ways of arranging the political universe leave no room for a centrist compromise. Both disjointed spectrums have several interpretations, some favored by realists and the others by more ideologically motivated people.

Disjointed Spectrum A

Disjointed Spectrum A is favored by some people of four different color profiles: GREEN-AQUA, GREEN-YELLOW, PURPLE-BLUE and PURPLE-RED. Each color group uses the same disjointed spectrum to tell a very different story about politics.

LEFT-RIGHT AXIS	TRUE LEFT	TRUE RIGHT	GOOD	EVIL	FOOLISH	INSANE
Spectrum 3	FAR LEFT	FAR RIGHT	AQUA- GREEN	RED- PURPLE	BLUE- PURPLE	YELLOW- GREEN
Spectrum 3	FAR LEFT	FAR RIGHT	RED- PURPLE	AQUA- GREEN	YELLOW- GREEN	BLUE- PURPLE
Spectrum 4	LEFT TYRANNY	RIGHT LIBERTY	YELLOW- GREEN	BLUE- PURPLE	RED- PURPLE	AQUA- GREEN
Spectrum 4	LEFT AUTHORITY	RIGHT ANARCHY	BLUE- PURPLE	YELLOW- GREEN	AQUA- GREEN	RED- PURPLE

Disjointed Spectrum B

Disjointed Spectrum B is favored by some other people of the same color profiles: GREEN-AQUA, GREEN-YELLOW, PURPLE-BLUE and PURPLE-RED. As with Disjointed Spectrum A, each color group uses the same underlying pattern to tell a very different story about politics.

LEFT-RIGHT AXIS	TRUE LEFT	TRUE RIGHT	GOOD	EVIL	FOOLISH	INSANE
Spectrum 4	FAR LEFT	FAR RIGHT	BLUE- PURPLE	YELLOW- GREEN	AQUA- GREEN	RED- PURPLE
Spectrum 4	FAR LEFT	FAR RIGHT	YELLOW- GREEN	BLUE- PURPLE	RED- PURPLE	AQUA- GREEN
Spectrum 3	LEFT ANARCHY	RIGHT AUTHORITY	RED- PURPLE	AQUA- GREEN	YELLOW- GREEN	BLUE- PURPLE
Spectrum 3	LEFT AUTHORITY	RIGHT ANARCHY	AQUA- GREEN	RED- PURPLE	BLUE- PURPLE	YELLOW- GREEN

A Quick Tour of Political COLORS

Is this whole COLOR thing just totally arbitrary?

No.

The choice of the COLOR assignments is somewhat ad hoc, but the relationships between the COLOR groups follow a very specific and coherent logic.

I started with the RED-BLUE right-left split that's been used pretty much nationwide since about November 2000. That assigns BLUE to the political leaders on the left and RED to the leaders on the right.

PURPLE is naturally assigned to politicians or states or people who jump back and forth between sides. Bipartisanship is PURPLE because it's the compromise position between RED and BLUE. In western civilization, PURPLE has been associated with political elites since the Roman era.

So that's how the bottom three COLORs were set.

I used COLOR math to define the top three colors. In the RGB system not-BLUE is YELLOW, not-RED is AQUA and not-PURPLE is GREEN. So the people most opposed to BLUE leadership are YELLOWs. Think Gadsen Flag and gold-bugs and market capitalists. Those most opposed to RED leadership are AQUAs. Note the connection to the Age of Aquarius and think voluntary cooperatives. Those most opposed to political authority itself are GREEN. Think grassroots independence movements that can swing either left or right.

All those distinctions leave simple left and right without COLORs. I defined them the same way PURPLE was assigned. Generic right is halfway between RED and YELLOW at socially conservative ORANGE. Generic left is halfway between BLUE and AQUA at culturally progressive DENIM.

In the middle of all these conflicting hues, consisting of each but dominated by none lies a space for GRAY people. All the shades of GRAY from almost WHITE to practically BLACK lumped together in the center.

So ends this brief overview of the political COLORs of the Asplund Chart. Try not to be politically COLOR-blind.

The GREEN-Centered Full Spectrum

As I mentioned when discussing the PURPLE-centered spectrum, the art of politics consists in framing an issue so that your own position is the point where everyone else will end up in a compromise. The standard left-right framing of political conflicts implicitly empowers anyone who can reasonably claim the center.

Like the governing establishment, the liberty movement works hard to maintain a reputation as a centrist position. The image below is the COLOR Spectrum that most closely matches the way libertarians prefer to frame the left-right continuum. From left to right it goes PURPLE-BLUE, BLUE, DENIM, AQUA, GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, RED, RED-PURPLE. This way of framing politics privileges the GREEN liberty position and attempts to marginalize anyone with more than a hint of PURPLE as essentially totalitarian. During periods when this way of looking at politics dominates, GREEN is the logical rallying point for big-tent independence and liberation movements.

The PURPLE-Centered Full Spectrum

Political battles are often won by those who are able to frame a conflict so that their own position is seen as the best (or only) place for everyone else to go in a compromise. The standard left-right framing of political conflicts implicitly empowers anyone who can reasonably claim the center.

The image below is the COLOR Spectrum that most closely matches the mainstream left-right continuum. From left to right it goes GREEN-AQUA, AQUA, DENIM, BLUE, PURPLE, RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, YELLOW-GREEN. This way of framing politics privileges the PURPLE unity position and marginalizes anyone with more than a hint of GREEN. While this way of looking at politics dominates, PURPLE is the logical point of compromise in every conflict between the mainstream DENIM consensus and the mainstream ORANGE consensus.

Why Talk in COLOR?

Reasons labels fail:

• Political labels mean different things to different people
• Language barriers create translation problems
• Political labels create a false sense of precision
• Labels change meaning over time and space
• Difficult to know how far apart two labels are

Reasons COLOR succeeds:

• Colors look generally the same to most people
• Colors come from (nearly) universal perception of the real world
• Everybody immediately knows COLORs are rough approximations
• COLORs are consistent over time and space
• Distances between COLORs are relatively clear

I'll apply COLORs to the word "Republican" as an example.

If "Republican" means someone who believes in a generally republican form of government...

Any COLOR could refer to a generally republican form of government, depending on all of the other characteristics of that republican form of government and the current form of government practiced in that society.

If "Republican" means someone who believes in a particular republican form of government...

An American who would like to return to a more originalist Constitutional Republic is probably YELLOW. The many Americans who believe that it would be better to empower other types of democratic republicanism as a way to limit the power of the Federal government might be classified as DENIM, AQUA, GREEN, YELLOW or ORANGE. There are also more consolidated forms of republican government that may be espoused by DENIM, BLUE, PURPLE, RED or ORANGE people.

If "Republican" means participation in the current Republican Party...

The core leadership of the Republican Party is somewhere in the PURPLE-RED area. People who vote for the Republican candidate in any given election could be any COLOR, but are more likely to be RED, ORANGE or YELLOW than BLUE, DENIM or AQUA.

If "Republican" means an activist in the pre-Civil War Republican Party...

A grassroots activist in the pre-Civil War Republican Party was most likely DENIM, AQUA or GREEN. The abolitionist movement and it's offshoots like the women's movement and civil rights movement are clearly tied across time and space to the modern far left to libertarian part of the spectrum. Northern REDs were generally active in the Republican Party leadership while southern REDs were active in the leadership of the Democratic Party.

If "Republican" means a member of the post-Civil War Republican Party...

An official in the post-Civil War Republican government was generally PURPLE. The consolidation of power going on after the war is consistent across time and space with the actions and ideologies of other groups that emerge victorious from a military conflict or maintain their power militarily.

The world "Republican" can mean any of these things. Treating the label as a useful marker between different times and places can lead to confusion. Using specific COLORs to describe the relationship between a particular republican and their society is more useful if the goal is to understand human behavior.

What COLOR am I?

Fair enough.

I asked you, so now it's my turn.

I was born GREEN. I've been told I was very stubborn as an infant and that hasn't changed much as I've aged.

I grew up in a RED/ORANGE household in an American town in a PURPLE state.

I have RED/ORANGE parents, YELLOW/GREEN/AQUA siblings and friends/relatives of every COLOR.

Most of the music I bought as a young man was DENIM/AQUA/GREEN. Rebellion and anger and rejecting the status quo.

My first presidential vote was cast for GRAY/YELLOW/RED/CRAZY Perot. My second and third were for RED/PURPLE Bush. I'm pretty sure I left that line blank in 2008 and very sure for 2012.

The only political event I've been to since graduating from a DENIM university was a (much more ORANGE and less YELLOW than I expected) Tea Party US Senate primary debate in my RED state of residence.

I've read RED books and DENIM treatises, YELLOW pamphlets and AQUA screeds. I've looked through BLUE texts and GREEN wikis, ORANGE archives and PURPLE decrees. At various points in my life I've been RED, ORANGE, YELLOW and GREEN. I've tried on dozens of labels and fit comfortably in none of them. I've learned that practically everyone can point out BLACK while almost nobody has a grasp on WHITE.

Right now I'm GRAY. GRAY because I know I don't have the definitive answer. GRAY because it's on the path away from BLACK, towards WHITE. GRAY because I believe it includes the best of every COLOR and the worst of none.