Economic Left/Right: -2.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.67

What is this supposed to do other than completely confuse me? I read all the junk about it and all I got out of it was that I'm economically democrat and socially pretty neutral. That doesn't agree with where I would put myself. I hate politics.

By  Stan, at 10/27/2004 4:21 AM  

"That doesn't agree with where I would put myself"

Well, while the test is fairly limiting and straightforward (doesn't have a no opinion option), it's basically highlighting where your answers place you. I mean, you answered the test... so technically you did 'put' yourself there.

I think the test is a better measure of opposites than party loyalty. While there were some questions I could have gone Agree/Disagree on, there were much more where I took the polar opposite on what I knew the upper right corner would answer.

By  Holz, at 10/27/2004 11:07 AM  

I'm not saying the test has high validity, but it's possible to be surprised by your own political leanings. In high school, I was sure I was a hard-core conservative. But, when a government class forced me to go through my beliefs issue by issue, it turned out I was mostly left-leaning with a strong right-leaning stance on a few issues. My right-leaning beliefs happened to be ones most publicized by the media, so I thought I was in total agreement with the Republican platform when in fact I wasn't.

Since then, I've realized that Republicans will pick a couple "hot button" issues that people are feeling strongly about (this year it's terrorism and gay marriage) and declare they're firmly on the same side as "families," "working class folks" or "average Americans." So "average Americans" vote for them, thinking the same thing I did back in the day…that just because we agree on a couple issues, we're in total agreement. (BTW, I’m not giving Dems a free ride. But they focus on getting "minority group" votes.)

Getting back to the topic: the test looks at a lot of issues to see how you generally feel about government intervention in finances and in social problems. You may identify strongly with a party because of one issue, but the test won't identify you the same way.

-Malora

By  Anonymous, at 10/28/2004 3:34 AM  

Now that you mention it Holz, I do remember there being a few questions where I either could have answered agree or disagree and a few that I couldn't care less either way but had to answer something. I guess that's the error involved in the test. Oh well.

By  Stan, at 10/28/2004 4:02 AM  

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