I discovered this test in a topic on my high school’s alumni web site.
Scary bunch of conservative southerners on that site. Most scores in the mid-to-upper 30s.
Me, I got an 11. Given my lack of faith in our government, I thought my score would have been even closer to the middle.
Show me a young Conservative and I’ll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I’ll show you someone with no brains. - Winston Churchill
Those questions all felt so loaded. All the cliches within my brain rose up in response to them.
Well great, I scored an 11 too. Smack in the middle of Bill and Hillary. Though really the answer to a lot of those questions would be “I dunno.”
I guess I’m just a bleeding heart, tax-and-spend, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, granola-eating, Engels-perusing, goatee-growing, Mocha-latte-sipping, ACLU-donating, West-Wing-watching, Janeane Garofalo-agreeing, butterfly-ballot-cursing, Tucker Carlson-hating, National Review-crumpling, fellatio-forgiving, malapropism-pouncing, Carville-rooting, flag-burning, lefty pinko communist anti-American California hippie.
It’s a dirty job but somebody’s gotta do it.
I got a 16. In between Powell and Clinton. Who knew? I agree with Gordon, though, it all seemed very loaded and if you asked me those things face to face I wouldn’t have an answer.
A one-dimensional quiz? Pssh, at the least they could rank in 2; someone’s come up with a pretty good 3 axis one.
Edit: Oooh, a 7! Between Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton!
Virtually every question is inane.
Dirt, contrary to PR, Clinton was pretty moderate. Second term at any rate.
Ha- I’m George Bush (25). I really am turning into a crusty old curmudgeon.
I kept looking for the “Trust no-one option.” Damn I’m a cynical bastard, and at such a young age. How sad.
Holy shit, I’m Bill Clinton. 15.
Yeah, that was a pretty ludicrous test. Giving me either/or options for really complex issues… I’m sitting there going “where’s the middle option?”
Heh, I guess I’m George Bush. But I agree that the “neither” or “wtf?” options were missing on some questions…
In Sweden it’s the Liberals and the Conservatives against the Social Democrats, because of the economic model favoured by the Liberals and Conservatives are the same, sadly.
Anyway, I was a 5 - Ted Kennedy on that test.
My radical moderate centrist fringe credentials are secure. Scored an 18.
–Dave
I’m an 8. And as Anders said, US political labels don’t apply to Europeans.
Yikes :shock: I got a 7. Do American political labels apply to Arkansans?
-DavidCPA
A 23. Despite the feeling I (also) got that these questions were incredibly loaded, this score actually falls in line with what I usually get from these sorts of tests - just barely to the right of center.
I got a 23. I actually thought most of the questions were fine, although there were definitely some clunkers.
More amusing than informative that test … unless you consider what it reveals about the people who wrote it. The problem is that it doesn’t deal very well with fiscal conservatism paired with social liberalism. It asks about deficit spending, but doesn’t identify the circumstances - am I running a deficit in boom times because I just launched a massive social welfare policy, because I’m trying to outspend the Communists, or is it deficit spending in a dowturn because I’m trying to stimulate the economy? Besides, I reject any test that doesn’t include Morbid Pessimism as a school of thought.
I’m an 11, though the questions were seriously lame.
I dunno… I got a 20, but I think there were definitely some questions that had implicit interpretations that I’d disagree with. I’m sure that it nudged me towards the liberal end of the scale for saying that I felt that “Stricter controls on the sale of guns” would reduce violent crime, even though I oppose such controls in general. On the other side of the scale, I’d disagree that “The religious right is a threat to our political system,” but that doesn’t mean that I approve of the religious right (which seems to be the quiz’s implicit interpretation).
There were several that needed a “None of the above” option, and a few were so vague as to be pointless (“Generally, do you tend to trust or distrust government’s ability to solve problems?”…I dunno–which problems?).
A typically superficial gauge of political leaning.
An 11, though I think I’m closer to Bill than Hillary. I’d probably vote for her, though.
Silly little test and an amusing distraction, but little more. The test is obviously dated (1994!) as there were no questions on foreign policy besides the Haiti/Korea and Trust of the UN one. A lot of questions on attitudes to problems, but very few on solutions except for the tax cut v. spending canard.
Troy