WASHINGTON: Do you view politics from the left or the right? How did directions get connected to political beliefs? In the beginning, it described where lawmakers sat. After the revolution of 1789, the French National Assembly argued over a new constitution. Anti-royalist revolutionaries disagreed with conservative aristocratic supporters of the monarchy.
They arranged themselves in groups inside the assembly chamber, revolutionaries on the left side of the presiding officer, conservatives on the right. The seating arrangement continued on and off over the years, but by the mid-1800s, journalists were using left and right as shorthand to describe political viewpoints. The practice continues to this day.
Far left and far right depict political extremes. Centrists are moderates who take positions in the middle.
