Quiz for Liberal/Conservative Scale

[Rastus]

22, between Colin Powell and George Bush the Elder.

 

[Aisengard]

15 - Slick Willy.

This just means I'm in with all the ladies. By the way, how many women post in P&N? Probably 0 is my guess. Women are smart.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: Stunt
How am I within 3 points of ProfJohn

Because you are flamingly conservative on economic issues

That's part of the reason a test like this is so silly...someone who's conservative because he hates gay people and civil liberties comes out just like someone who's conservative because he likes low taxes and small government. Now maybe it's just me, but those two guys don't really come too close in political ideology.

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: Rainsford

Originally posted by: Stunt
How am I within 3 points of ProfJohn

Because you are flamingly conservative on economic issues

That's part of the reason a test like this is so silly...someone who's conservative because he hates gay people and civil liberties comes out just like someone who's conservative because he likes low taxes and small government. Now maybe it's just me, but those two guys don't really come too close in political ideology.

You are right on that.
BTW: I gave the 'left' answer on the gay marriage question since I support the 'something similar' thing.

I think we would be better off with a 4 way measure.
Social liberal-conservative
Economic liberal-conservative
Since many people are libeeral on social issues and conservative on economic.

BTW: Stunt, I take back all those nice things I said about Canada. I hope Stesaind and Baldwin BOTH move to your town after the election!

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Rainsford
I don't think I claimed you were a far righty (I believe your ADHERENCE to your beliefs is pretty extreme, but not the beliefs themselves), and if I did, I probably hadn't though my comment all the way through. But unless I'm mistaken, the middle of a zero to 40 scale is 20, which is closer to 15 than 30 last time I checked.

You are right about 15 being closer to 20 than 30. Although I think America is a little to the right of 20 based on the past 7 Presidential elections.
Every Democrat who has run since 1980 has been a 15 or lower, in my estimation, and not one of them has gotten above 50% of the vote.
Meanwhile, Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 are at least a 25 or more and ALL of them received above 50.
You have to go all the way back to Johnson to find a liberal Democrat who won with 50+% of the vote. As for Jimmy Carter, any Democrat could have won in the post Watergate era.
There is no doubt in my mind that conservatives have dominated the country politically on the national level for the past 25+ years.
Even with everything go bad for the Republicans and good for the Democrats this year the Democrats are still hoping to just barely win a majority in congress and will most likely not hit the 51 seats they need to win the Senate.

I'm not real sure your point about Presidential elections is really valid. For one thing, you can't really compare between two different races, obviously things vary from election to election (especially regarding 3rd parties). And because of that, "getting above 50% of the vote" is a poor indicator. I don't think a reasonable person can argue that Bush's 3% victory over Kerry was somehow more indicative of a shift in public views than Clinton's HUGE win in 1996 just because Clinton didn't get a majority of the vote. And anyways, I know no one likes to talk about it, but didn't Gore actually get MORE votes than Bush in 2000? Not too many more, and not in the right spots to win, but that hardly supports your theory.

As for your overall "Republican dominance" theory, I'm not sure the control of congress for the past 25 years would agree.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Rainsford

Originally posted by: Stunt
How am I within 3 points of ProfJohn

Because you are flamingly conservative on economic issues

That's part of the reason a test like this is so silly...someone who's conservative because he hates gay people and civil liberties comes out just like someone who's conservative because he likes low taxes and small government. Now maybe it's just me, but those two guys don't really come too close in political ideology.

You are right on that.
BTW: I gave the 'left' answer on the gay marriage question since I support the 'something similar' thing.

I think we would be better off with a 4 way measure.
Social liberal-conservative
Economic liberal-conservative
Since many people are libeeral on social issues and conservative on economic.

I did always like the 2-axis scale. Still a little too broad if you ask me, but it makes more sense. It certainly works well for people like me who are VERY liberal (libertarian) on social issues but rather moderate on economic ones. For folks looking to label someone a lefty or a righty, my ideology looks pretty liberal, but that's not really an accurate representation.

 

[Stunt]

There should be a 3d measure.
Authoritarian, Social Alliances, Economics.

There so many positions on different issues, you cannot relate to any one leader or party for that matter.

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: Rainsford
I'm not real sure your point about Presidential elections is really valid. For one thing, you can't really compare between two different races, obviously things vary from election to election (especially regarding 3rd parties). And because of that, "getting above 50% of the vote" is a poor indicator. I don't think a reasonable person can argue that Bush's 3% victory over Kerry was somehow more indicative of a shift in public views than Clinton's HUGE win in 1996 just because Clinton didn't get a majority of the vote. And anyways, I know no one likes to talk about it, but didn't Gore actually get MORE votes than Bush in 2000? Not too many more, and not in the right spots to win, but that hardly supports your theory.

As for your overall "Republican dominance" theory, I'm not sure the control of congress for the past 25 years would agree.

Congress is not a good indicator of national mood due to local factors. But when it comes to Presidential elections the field naturally favors the Republicans and has for 25 or so years. Yes there were 3rd party issues with Clinton, but he did not run as a liberal Democrat though, he ran as a centrist. Further proof I am right Republicans still use the word conservative, while Democrats run from the word liberal. I would say as a country we are center-right.

 

[Stunt]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Rainsford
I'm not real sure your point about Presidential elections is really valid. For one thing, you can't really compare between two different races, obviously things vary from election to election (especially regarding 3rd parties). And because of that, "getting above 50% of the vote" is a poor indicator. I don't think a reasonable person can argue that Bush's 3% victory over Kerry was somehow more indicative of a shift in public views than Clinton's HUGE win in 1996 just because Clinton didn't get a majority of the vote. And anyways, I know no one likes to talk about it, but didn't Gore actually get MORE votes than Bush in 2000? Not too many more, and not in the right spots to win, but that hardly supports your theory.

As for your overall "Republican dominance" theory, I'm not sure the control of congress for the past 25 years would agree.

Congress is not a good indicator of national mood due to local factors. But when it comes to Presidential elections the field naturally favors the Republicans and has for 25 or so years. Yes there were 3rd party issues with Clinton, but he did not run as a liberal Democrat though, he ran as a centrist. Further proof I am right Republicans still use the word conservative, while Democrats run from the word liberal. I would say as a country we are center-right.

There's so much at play during elections in the US:
Candidate, Party, Leadership, Political Views, Campaign, Money, Smear Ads, Voting Machines, Media.

I wouldn't even attempt to use election results as basis for forming political views of the masses. Hell I don't think I've even seen a poll on most important issues to Americans. NOT campaign issues as those are usually partisan bullcrap. I'm talking genuine issues real people care about. This would give insight to people's views relative to the status quo (which is fairly right-centre as is - the system)

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Rainsford
I'm not real sure your point about Presidential elections is really valid. For one thing, you can't really compare between two different races, obviously things vary from election to election (especially regarding 3rd parties). And because of that, "getting above 50% of the vote" is a poor indicator. I don't think a reasonable person can argue that Bush's 3% victory over Kerry was somehow more indicative of a shift in public views than Clinton's HUGE win in 1996 just because Clinton didn't get a majority of the vote. And anyways, I know no one likes to talk about it, but didn't Gore actually get MORE votes than Bush in 2000? Not too many more, and not in the right spots to win, but that hardly supports your theory.

As for your overall "Republican dominance" theory, I'm not sure the control of congress for the past 25 years would agree.

Congress is not a good indicator of national mood due to local factors. But when it comes to Presidential elections the field naturally favors the Republicans and has for 25 or so years. Yes there were 3rd party issues with Clinton, but he did not run as a liberal Democrat though, he ran as a centrist. Further proof I am right Republicans still use the word conservative, while Democrats run from the word liberal. I would say as a country we are center-right.

I'd say THAT particular point is more a measure of how effective political marketing can be than anything else. Tell people you have liberal ideas (WITHOUT using the word "liberal") and there is no problem, use the word liberal and suddenly you're some sort of weirdo. Of course the country being center right really begs the question of how we determine where the "center" is...it seems like a nontrivial problem to determine a center if it's not where most of the people are.

Don't get me wrong, I actually LIKE the idea of holding a minority viewpoint on things. My view is that a lot of people are complete knobs, so when too many of them start agreeing with me on something, I tend to think maybe it's time to reconsider my position. The fact that the public has had a pretty lukewarm reaction to the Republicans creative editing of the constitution has convinced me more than ever that I'm right.

 

[Tab]

I got a 19 and yes the quiz does suck...

This test is much better.

I got a 91%/73% on that test.

 

[Uhtrinity]

14, but like some others said I don't agree with all the questions

 

[Uhtrinity]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Rainsford

Originally posted by: Stunt
How am I within 3 points of ProfJohn

Because you are flamingly conservative on economic issues

That's part of the reason a test like this is so silly...someone who's conservative because he hates gay people and civil liberties comes out just like someone who's conservative because he likes low taxes and small government. Now maybe it's just me, but those two guys don't really come too close in political ideology.

You are right on that.
BTW: I gave the 'left' answer on the gay marriage question since I support the 'something similar' thing.

I think we would be better off with a 4 way measure.
Social liberal-conservative
Economic liberal-conservative
Since many people are libeeral on social issues and conservative on economic.

BTW: Stunt, I take back all those nice things I said about Canada. I hope Stesaind and Baldwin BOTH move to your town after the election!

For a 4 way Political Compass is pretty good.

 

[CellarDoor]

Originally posted by: Tab
I got a 19 and yes the quiz does suck...

This test is much better.

I got a 91%/73% on that test.

I got 83%/36%. This puts me somewhere near Ghandi, which is pretty similar to what the political compass test says as well. Well, a little up and to the left of him.

 

[AutumnRayne]

I got an 18, barely left of center.

 

[KlokWyze]

Who do you trust more?
The FBI or
The IRS?

Wow, im not taking that.

Where do you want me to stab you?
Your arm or
your leg?

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

16, B. Clinton

 

[HombrePequeno]

I got a 25.

On the OkCupid! test I got 88%, 80%
On the Political compass I got 3.75 Economic and -4.46 Social.

Those last two point towards Libertarian. The first test kind of sucks.