Too often when discussions are held on DailyKos someone will refer to an argument as a right-wing talking point or a political view as coming from the right. Since often when we are talking about the "right wing", we are basically discussing an established group of people rather than an ideology it is easy to be dismissive of everything "they" say. It gets very confusing as what is considered to the right and what is considered to the left. I fear that we are dismissive of ideas that may have merit, even if those who are articulating them may have nefarious motives.
My view is that arguments from the right are those that provide freedom through individual rights with the far-right basically being a state of nature where anyone is allowed to do anything without any government intervention and ideas from the left being those that impose rules on interaction to support the common good (with far-left being a paternalistic state). Given that individuals can reduce each others rights without rules, these rules can often enhance freedom between individuals even if there is some reduction in freedom because of the rules (a simple example of this is the financial markets where the rules allow system to work and therefore give everyone the freedom to trade).
This framing makes almost all government essentially from the left, but not freedom reducing. The only time the government is right-wing is when it passes laws that inherently limit its own domain (freedom of speech, women's right to choose). For example, Social Security is obviously from the left, but it is hard to argue that elderly with more economic security are less free - similiarly non-employer based healthcare would have essentially the same effect (provide more freedom). It also makes policies such as the Patriot Act essentially from the left in that their advocates are essentially suggesting that citizens must give up rights for the common good.
At the end of the day, it seems to me that what the "right-wing" fails to understand about left policies is that they enhance freedom by reducing the amount that others can control our freedoms. For example, regulating industries often enhances the markets that these industries operate in and gives us more freedom not less. Too often our power as an individual is extremely muted and it is only by acting through government as a citizen that we can achieve true freedom. One thing to be aware of is that by this definition "conservative" ideas such as regulation of a women's right to choose, are not to the right even if they are generated by the "right-wing".
In general it would probably be better not to use the terms left or right to describe policy, but rather discuss why it is a good or bad idea. Policies that restrict rights for the benefit of the common good, can be criticized for how they are overly restrictive and don't actually help the common good. Policies that are from the right should be criticised for providing to much power for individuals to restrict others rights and how they do not address social injustices. I would be interested to hear other perspectives on what they believe defines policies from the right and those from the left.