SPOTM Political Map
Timeframe: U.S., roughly 2016–2026. Heuristic, not a scoreboard for teams.
What the map is for
The old left–right line hides the fact that communism and fascism are neighbors: both run life by compulsion and a center. It also hides that “the Right” contains both a rights-protecting constitutionalism and a managerial security state.
The map answers four questions about a system or movement:
- Does it deal with people by consent or by initiation of force?
- Is power many centers or one center?
- Who controls resources — owners and prices, or political command?
- Does it answer to reality or to a narrative?
The axes
X — Consent ↔ Initiatory force (main axis)
Low X = opt-in, exit, contract, due process, speech.
High X = mandates on peaceful action, seizure, censorship, compelled association.
Not counted as high X: police, courts, and borders used to stop initiated force (crime, invasion, fraud). Those are rights-enforcing and get a badge, not a shove toward fascism.
Y — Polycentric ↔ Unitary
Low Y = federalism, localism, competing jurisdictions, markets as coordination.
High Y = one administrative apex, nationalized standards, emergency executive.
Z — Property/prices ↔ Political command of assets
High Z = private title + free prices.
Low Z = state ownership or private title with the state directing use (corporatism, industrial decree).
W — Reality/reason ↔ Narrative/identity
High W = evidence, trade-offs, falsifiability.
Low W = leader-myth, sacred identity, “emergency” as a substitute for argument.
T (ring, not a full axis) — long-horizon production vs short-horizon consumption. Debt-as-policy and “live for the clip” score poorly here even when X is only middling.
Origin / Constitutional oval
The U.S. Constitution as intended sits in low-to-mid X, low-to-mid Y, high Z, mid-high W: enumerated powers, federalism, property, due process.
Arrows off the oval: emergency rule → +X; nationalizing state functions → +Y; price control/expropriation → −Z; identity-emergency talk → −W.
Administrative band (not a party)
A shaded band at high Y, mid-to-high X, mid Z: rulemaking, procurement, security bureaucracy. It can cover Democratic administrations, GOP security-state practice, and standing agencies. It is a structure, not an ideology with a mascot.
Placements (0–100)
X: 0 = max consent, 100 = max initiatory force
Y: 0 = max polycentric, 100 = max unitary
Z: 0 = command of assets, 100 = strong private property/prices
W: 0 = narrative rule, 100 = reality/reason
| Node | X | Y | Z | W | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Communism (ML) | 95 | 95 | 8 | 28 | Plan + one party; narrative as law |
| Fascism / NS | 92 | 92 | 22 | 30 | Title private, control political; leader-myth |
| Theocracy / auth. traditionalism | 85 | 82 | 50 | 32 | Dogma over evidence; property varies |
| DSA / US democratic socialism | 72 | 72 | 35 | 48 | Open social-ownership tilt; mandate-heavy |
| Identitarian-admin progressivism (c. 2013–26) | 68 | 78 | 52 | 48 | Agencies + identity narrative; title still private |
| New Deal–style social democracy | 62 | 68 | 58 | 58 | Tax/regulate/welfare; less sacred-identity W than above |
| Democratic national leadership 2024 (heuristic) | 66 | 76 | 54 | 52 | Federal standards/mandates; managerial Y |
| Populist left / left economic nationalism | 64 | 74 | 48 | 50 | Industrial policy + speech politics |
| Administrative / managerial state (band center) | 70 | 86 | 50 | 52 | Cross-party rulemaking apex |
| Neocon / center-right managerialism | 56 | 72 | 74 | 54 | Markets + executive/security + industrial tilt |
| GOP establishment 2024 (managerial wing) | 55 | 70 | 74 | 54 | Same family as row above |
| MAGA in office (exec. practice) | 48 | 64 | 66 | 52 | Border as rights-enforcing (not +X); tariffs/executive +Y, −Z a bit |
| MAGA rhetoric / coalition average | 42 | 52 | 72 | 54 | More federalist talk than practice |
| National conservatism (intellectual) | 46 | 62 | 68 | 56 | Nation as a good; industrial policy theorized |
| Paleoconservatism | 44 | 48 | 70 | 56 | Lower empire-Y than MAGA-in-office |
| US constitutional conservatism (small-c) | 34 | 38 | 82 | 68 | Enumerated powers, federalism, due process |
| Classical liberalism (Founding echo) | 30 | 36 | 84 | 72 | Rights + commerce; slimmer culture-state than paleo |
| Techno-libertarianism (SPOTM political target) | 26 | 32 | 90 | 74 | Night-watchman + production + reason; I-mode |
| Libertarian minarchist | 24 | 28 | 90 | 72 | Rights-protecting state only |
| Anarcho-capitalist | 14 | 12 | 94 | 64 | Polycentric law; transition/public-goods open |
| Left-anarchism | 58 | 22 | 12 | 44 | Low official center; coercion returns via expropriation |
Rights-enforcing badge (does not raise X):
objective criminal law, defense against attack, controlled borders against unlawful entry, contract enforcement.
The picture in four quadrants (X–Y)
- Consent + polycentric (low X, low Y): constitutional oval, classical liberal, minarchist, techno-libertarian, ancap. This is SPOTM’s political home.
- Consent + unitary (low X, high Y): rare and unstable. A center strong enough to unify everything tends to stop asking.
- Force + unitary (high X, high Y): communism, fascism, theocracy, hard administrative command. Neighbors.
- Force + polycentric (high X, low Y): bosses, local predation, militia rule. Unstable; force seeks a bigger center or burns out.
Z colors the dots: greener = markets/property, redder = command.
W is a ring brightness: brighter = reason.
Parties without turning the map into a team sport
Democrats (national, recent trend): live in the social-democratic to identitarian-admin cluster — mid-high X, high Y, mid Z, mid W — with a strong overlap on the administrative band.
Republicans: a split, not a point.
- Managerial/security wing → neocon/establishment cell.
- MAGA → between constitutional conservatism and national conservatism; rhetoric closer to the oval, executive practice higher Y.
Neither wing sits next to fascism on Z or on everyday X (ordinary life is not a one-party command economy).
In this SPOTM version
- Persons are ends; initiated force is the primary political sin.
- Fascism and communism are adjacent on X and Y; they differ mainly on the form of Z.
- The Constitution is an origin region, not a mascot.
- The administrative state is a band that outlives slogans.
- Techno-libertarianism sits with minarchy on X/Y/Z and a bit higher on W — the I-mode partner to SPOTM’s spiritual M2, not a merger of the two worldviews.
One-line use:
If a policy moves you up and right by initiating force and thickening the center, it is leaving the constitutional oval. If it only answers force with law, it has not.
Learn more
- SPOTM: Synchronic Panentheistic Objective Theistic Monism (parts 1–2).
- A Techno‑Libertarian Manifesto (parts 1–2).
- George Reisman, Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics. (Clear distinctions among capitalism, socialism, and interventionism.)
- F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom. (Central planning’s coercive drift.)
- James Buchanan & Gordon Tullock, The Calculus of Consent. (Constitutional political economy and consent.)
How to read it:
- Down-left is SPOTM’s political home: consent + many centers + property.
- Up-right is the coercive neighborhood: communism, fascism, and hard theocracy sit beside each other.
- MAGA is two dots so rhetoric and executive practice are not faked into one point.
- The gray band is the standing administrative machine; parties pass through it.
- The green oval is constitutional fidelity, not a personality.
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Here is a second drawing (Z/W color-only)
How to read this one:
- Up-right: property and argument — constitutional / classical liberal / minarchist / techno-libertarian.
- Down-left: command and myth — communism, then fascism close by (more title on paper, same narrative rule).
- MAGA vs Dem 2024 are nearer each other here than the first map’s X–Y spread suggested: both mid property, mid reason.
- Left-anarchism drops hard on Z even though it was low-centralization on the first chart. That is the point of a second drawing.
Here is a third drawing ( parties as arrows instead of dots)
How to read the arrows:
- Head = recent practice. Shaft = where that coalition came from.
- Democrats: into the administrative band (more center, more mandate).
- GOP establishment: same band, different color — security and industrial management.
- MAGA: out of the oval toward national levers; rhetoric still talks back toward federalism.
- A small teal remnant still points at the oval. That is the SPOTM political target, not a current majority.
Together with the two scatter charts you now have structure (dots), property/truth (Z/W), and motion (arrows).
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