Check your "political compass" against the candidates.....

http://www.politicalcompass.org/ is a website with a series of questions to determine your economic and social political leanings. I originally was made aware of this site by a post here on DU some months ago. I retook the test for kicks and noticed that they had performed the test (by proxy) for the 2004 candidates:



I have been supporting Dean & Clark, but my own compass puts me in the Left/Libertarian quadrant.... with Kucinich and Sharpton!

Hmmmmmmm....

Economic Left/Right: -4.50
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.31

I'm even more Liberal than Al Sharpton!

to the west and south both, but I still love him anyway, :^)

:bounce:

Kucinich for President

Economic Left/Right: -7.38
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.08

:hippie:

I love your sig line! Where did you get it?

:D which is awesome, sigh though, I am an extremeist even by British standards, no wonder I have felt feelings of wanting to leave. Sigh :(.

I was more extreme than most British standards as well. This is why I think most Kunnich followers and person with open minds are having a hard time with the moral dilemma with some of the canidates rhetoric.

Yeah thats tough for me as an idealist, I know some people as left of me or lefter who are more willing to give in to more moderates but I dont know, I just cant get to pysched up, like I'll be willing to support the nominee, and I will likely register as a democrat when I turn 18 but sigh idealism is where its at.

7.6 and 7.8 left-libertarian.

Really gives you alot of options on what to vote for.

So many different views and takes on issues - NOT!

Shouldn't even be on the chart, unless there were answers like

E) I don't give a fuck - give me the campaign money!

1) * isn't very much distinguished from the cluster of Dem candidates;
2) Most Dem candidates are closer to * then they are to the "left wing" of their party, with Kucinich and Sharpton;
3) The "center of gravity" for the major Dem candidates is in the Authoritarian Right quadrant. Isn't Dem party supposed to be the libertarian left alternative to the GOP?

Tells a lot about the state of American politics today, though nothing we didn't already know.

On Edit: What this graph fails to account for is that the Dem candidates aren't part of the junta, whatever their ideology. If somebody had the same political ideology as Tony Soprano, that doesn't mean they wouldn't make a better president than he would.

but that is why Rev Sharpton is telling people it is time to get the elected people that are elephants that are in donkey suits out of office.

It is my belief (fantasy?) that even though close on the chart - at least in the same quadrant - Dean or Clark would run the country much differently than Bush.

So I asked myself "self, what is the difference between the Auth/Right Dems and Bush which THIS CHART IS NOT MEASURING?"

I'm not entirely sure, but maybe it's not something political at all. Could it be:

Net worth?
Honesty?
Greed?
Religious wingnutiness?

I want shrub out! So I support Clark.

I do find it interesting that Dean is actually to the slightly to the right of Clark.

Kerry and Gep...another reason I find his support among anyone calling themselves progressive a mystery. But not to single out Dean, as someone else said, the most interesting thing is that ALL the major the Dem candidates are in that upper right quadrant. Some choices the Dems give us...

I especially like the "US Primaries" page, which is new since my last visit. The chart illustrates that the "coordinates" of political thought across the two US parties are actually quite tightly grouped, mostly in the "Authoritarian/Right" quadrant (the notable exceptions are Kucinich and Sharpton). I was quite surprised to see how far my own coordinates are from my favored candidates!

Potential independent candidate Ralph Nader has suggested that the US has become a one-party nation. It would be interesting to add
Nader's results to your graph for comparison. For slightly more clarity you could color the points by party - red, blue and green.

I am interested in politics, and not an operative for Mr. Nader.

Especially since the 70s, when the Dems have tracked further and further to the right on several key "Democratic" issues.

In a rush to appeal to the "money", this party has all but sold its soul to some mythical "moderate center". However, if you look at the position of the parties these days, you'll soon realize that both parties are mostly right-wing at this stage, and that "moderate center" is actually at the left side of the Democratic Party!

Despite the right-wing propagande that Americans are basically "conservative", we still have some very liberal leanings. For example, 70% of this nation supports a government-run single-payer health insurance plan (50% of Republicans, even!), yet only a handful of our candidates have positions that support this plan. Most Americans are still very liberal on economic issues (taxes, supporting public schools, spending $$ to improve infrastructure, corporate handouts, etc.), yet we still select so-called "moderates" whose economic policies have more in common with Wall Street than Main Street.

IMHO, this is also the reason why many potential (possibly former?) Democratic voters have stayed home over the last 15 years. Our candidates are not much different from the Repubs on several key issues (death penalty, drug war, the economy), so why should they bother voting for a Dem if s/he will only sell them out and won't fight for them in the end?

If this party really wants to win again, it needs to move back to the political center, which is currently on its left. Talk about the pocketbook issues that Democrats have always won on. This is how we won elections in the past, and this is how we can win them again.

I don't see the candidates' positions as necessarily accurate. It would be subjective and dependent on who chose the answers, I would think.

I'm with Dennis and Nelson!

I was suprised at how "law and order" I turned out to be! I expected to be at least at -8 on the lib/auth scale. Maybe I'm getting "conservative" in my old age???

HA!!! I doubt that. I'm actually more economically/socially liberal than I was in college 15 years ago. Hard to believe but true. I guess that's what eight years of Clinton does to a moderate/liberal Democrat, huh?

Eventually I'd like to see the direction in this country changing from the Bush towards Kucinich/Sharpton scale. But to get there I believe we have to take some baby steps.

I woundn't mind reaching stopping by Edwards, Clark, or Kerry before getting there. :-)


Edit to add my results:

Economic Left/Right: -5.12
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.13

I'm suprised to see most of the candidates in the upper right quadrant.

-8.88 and a -7.23

inserting his positions as I know them. I got:

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -2.12
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.90

I only used 'strongly agree/disagree' a few times.

Over with Ghandi and the Dalai Lama, I guess.

I think last time it was much shorter, no? Also, I thought Dean and Clark were slightly on the left of center last time? Who decides what candidate positions are?

On edit: Nevermind, I answered my own question.

-4.50 and -5.03

Thanks for the test BlueEyedSon

A little further left and south of Gandhi. And Dennis and Sharpton.

I'm voting for Kucinich; so I'm voting for one of the candidates who most closely matches my position.

Economic Left/Right: -5.25
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.79
I'm a Kerry/Dean/Clark/CMB supporter, so I don't know what all this says about me. Maybe I'm a... a... a sell out?

i'm -8.38 economic left/right

and -6.05 libertarian/authoritarian

looks like none of us would make good little lock-step repukes!

on the authoritorian right is pretty scary, is that accurate?



Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -5.75
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.46

I pull Clark at Left on Econ -.05 and Libertarian a -2.92.
And I feel I know a whole lot about Clark.
(I was -3.12 and -4.46)

And I imagine if I did the same for Dean et al I would find them all more left than you did.

based on actual positions, statements and history I believe.

TWL

Southwest of them all, Ghandi included. Extreme Left Libertarian

Economic Left/Right: -8.12
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.28

I kind of knew my answer on spanking children would land me more to the right but sigh...

that put me right smack next to the Dalai Lama. Farther left that DK.

Not that I was trying for a perfect score or anything. ;-)

I doubt we could elect someone with our coordinates, but DK looks to be the closest match, if this is accurate.

Economic Left/Right: -3.38
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.21

I'm closest to Sharpton and Kucinich on the chart...

but out of the electable candidates I'm closest to Kerry, then Clark, then Dean, then Gephardt, then Lieberman, then Edwards (although I'd definitely flip Edwards and Lieberman around).