Right, Left, Britain and America

The Economist has a really interesting analysis of the differences in culture and politics. But this gets harder to specify. Ahem:

("Left" and "right" are harder to locate than they were: here "left" implies a big-state, secular, socially liberal, internationalist and green outlook; right, the reverse.)

Bush Republicans are big-state and internationalist. Does that make them left? Libertarians are secular and small-state. Where does that leave them? I'd be mainly "left" on this count, along with many British Tories, except for big-state politics. "Harder to locate than they were" is an understatement. It may help to abando these labels for a while, especially across countries, until they actually mean something again.