Empirical blurring of left and right does not prove their irrelevance

Evidence

Those who argue for the need to go beyond right and left affirm that in the type of globalizing, reflexive society in which we live, neither conservatism nor socialism can provide adequate solutions. No doubt, this is the case. Moreover, it is also true that in political practice the categories of left and right have become increasingly blurred. But to infer from that empirical fact a thesis concerning the necessary irrelevance of such a disrinction or to make a value judgement about the desirability of its disappearance is another matter. — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 521

But to infer from that empirical fact a thesis concerning the necessary irrelevance of such a disrinction or to make a value judgement about the desirability of its disappearance is another matter. This might make sense from the perspective of a liberal approach unable to recognize the constitutive role of relations of power and the ineradicability of antagonism; but for those who aim at formulating a progressive politics it is necessary to acknowledge the dimension of what I have proposed to calJ ‘the political’ and the impossibility of a reconciled society. Our task should be to redefine the left in order to reactivate the democratic struggle, not to proclaim its obsolescence. — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 521

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes empirical blurring from the normative claim that the distinction is obsolete — an epistemic/rhetorical move worth tracking.
• QUESTION: The reader is testing whether reconciliation is truly impossible — this passage makes that impossibility claim centrally.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 521
• XREF: connects to: Liberal and conservative perspectives are not mirror images of one another; Right-left labels mislead when applied outside their Western origin; Observed conservative-versus-liberal dogmatism gaps may be response-style artifacts

Broader Connections

• Liberal and conservative perspectives are not mirror images of one another #expands (0.75)
• Observed conservative-versus-liberal dogmatism gaps may be response-style artifacts #expands (0.75)
• Right-left labels mislead when applied outside their Western origin #corroborates (0.72)