natesilver.net
I thought this was an interesting framing of political discourse, but hadn't seen it referenced elsewhere. So, now I'm referencing it elsewhere.
Silver creates a Socialism-Conservatism-Liberalism triangle, proposing that this three-axis (yet still two dimensional) dynamic describes much of political discourse. He doesn't make a direct contrast to the traditional political compass, but their respective merits seems like a good question.
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Notes -
This seems to be one of those essays temporarily-embarrassed-democrats kicked out of the coalition write. Assertions that he didn't leave the party, true principles of the party were betrayed; nervous jabs at the outgroup to remind everyone he's not one of them; and a weird, paradoxical refusal to admit that the outgroup's prediction of your party's nature turned out to be right. I spent a few minutes trying to understand what he meant by "MAGA-fied Republicans" as some sharp deviation away from pre-2016 republicans on social policy, as if Trump weren't basically a 90s democrat, but I think those remarks are better understood in that light.
The triangle is a projection of Silver's psyche, where even though he's no longer a progressive, he's still not a dirty red triber. He can't psychologically bring himself to admit that, if either party can be said to represent classical liberalism at this point, it is the republicans.
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