So if the Left is gleaning crumbs, and the Right is bussing tables, who's feasting? Ah yes, I see: the merchant and business class. Too dedicated to keeping the ship of state running to care much who steers it, as long as they stay afloat and can eat in the officer's mess.

[Pardon the change of metaphors mid-paragraph...]

Your dichotomy reminds me of another ironic twist: The militant Right quotes Thomas Jefferson, and claims him for their own -- especially in matters of "states' rights" and individual freedom from government -- when Jefferson was probably the most liberal man of his times. Jefferson had an almost New Age faith in the innate nobility of man; left to their own devices, they would do the right thing.

The most conservative of those times, John Adams, had a mistrust of human nature; left to their own devices, the greedy and the lazy would take advantage... and he co-founded Federalism (i.e., big government) as a result, making him anathema to what might otherwise be his natural constituency.