I was thinking today about how my politics have changed over time. I've always refused to be labeled and keep an open mind about each individual issue, so I often describe myself as "independent" to express my ability to think left on one issue and right on the next. But my general leaning has evolved from anarcho-communism to libertarian... and I don't think they are too far apart on the political spectrum. So I don't think politics is a spectrum, I think it's more of a circle.
I'm not sure if the circle of politics is a thing you can find in your political theory textbook, so I am going to assume I am the only person to think of it and preemptively name it after myself. Here is an image of the "Irwin Circle of Politics"
Sorry for the low quality; I don't actually know how to write curved text in my image-editor and don't really have time to learn. On the left side you have democrats and on the right is republican, and in between them are moderates... but there is another connection on the radical side of the spectrum, where anarcho-communism and libertarianism meet. In this diagram, I use the word "traditional" instead of "moderate" to mean "non-radical", or more accepting of the status quo.
^ 2023/09