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I think the left-right political spectrum is a vestige that was much more useful when governments were smaller. Like if you believed 1/5 things on the left and 4/5 things on the right, you would be "right wing".

Now people believe 4/23402348 things on the left and 12/23402348 on the right, that same person would be *technically* right but there are so many issues that a simple left-right spectrum doesn't accurately describe anything.

Even if you add a y-axis (like the political compass meme) it still only boils things down to "economic left/right" and "authoritarian/libertarian".

The reason why people use left/right, conservative/liberal, democrat/republican is because that is the terminology people are familiar with (even if it is woefully lacking) and in a country (U.S.) where most people would be hard-pressed to name the three branches of the federal government, I don't think this will improve anytime soon.

Maybe in countries with coalition governments the parties can more accurately represent an individual's beliefs, but not in a two party system.

Unfortunately, I don't think "what's good for the people" is really precise or useful.