CMV: Using the terms "Democrat" or "Republican" when you actually mean "Leftist" or "Rightist" is a purposeful conflation designed to bring the fringe elements of those political affiliations into mainstream discussion

This is a discussion I've had with plenty of people and I just want to hear more opinions on it. One of the most frustrating things for me is hearing arguments that use the terms "Democrat" and "Republican" interchangeably with "Leftist" and "Rightist," respectively. I realize that a lot of these people don't actually believe that Democrats are interchangeable with Leftists or Republicans with Rightists, but they do so anyway. When you say "Republican" but actually mean "Rightist," you bring the political fringe into that discussion as if their viewpoints represent all Republicans. <br><br>For example, when you hear someone say something like, "Republicans are idiots for still not believing in Climate Change." This is a purposeful conflation of political ideologies. Republicans believe in Climate Change. Rightists do not, and Rightist is what is actually being referenced in discussions like these. Rightists are not the same as Republicans, Republicans just happen to be the political party with the Rightist label attached to it because of the Left/Right Dichotomy. <br><br>This kind of dialogue is also why people are so quick to call Trump a Rightist when, by definition, he is not. He is a Republican. Republicans are considered Rightists, but the political ideologies of Rightism and Republicanism are not the same. Trump does not represent the Rightist ideology and is not Rightist by definition, but because of the Left/Right Dichotomy that we currently have in place, he is lumped in with the political Right. He is lumped in with Rightist ideologies. Trump is a Republican. The issue is that Republicans are seen as Rightists and vice versa. <br><br>This is my change my view. I believe that the common interchange of political labels is part of a larger attempt to bring fringe political ideologies into mainstream discussion by lumping them in with their closest mainstream political counterparts. This is why I feel like we need more political parties. The less mainstream parties, the more accurately we can represent political ideologies and stop the political fringe from being lumped in with those ideologies. We can't have more mainstream political parties until the population at large accepts those parties as legitimate, and that will only happen if we stop using political labels interchangeably.