How conservative am I?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I know similar threads have been done before and don’t get too many responses, but I’ve been wanting to ask this for a long time, and now that posting is free again, what the heck. If this does poorly or sinks like a stone, at least I’m not paying for it :).

I also know that there are web sites that tell you this sort of thing, but I’ve never found them to be very useful. So, here’s the thread. I’ll share a bunch of my social and political beliefs and you respond how conservative you think I am on a scale of 0 to 10. 0 = Moderate, 5 = Conservative, 6 = Right wing extremest. I’m obviously American, but if you’re from another country, I’m also curious how I’d rate by your country’s standards. As for me, I’d rate myself a 3. Maybe a 3.5.

Abortion - Against, except if the woman’s life is in danger.

Gay marriage - No problem with it.

Iraq war - We need to end our involvement.

School Vouchers: - For

Universal healthcare - On the fence.

Gun Control:
Favor background checks for criminal records and mental illnesses.
On the fence about waiting periods above and beyond the time it takes to run a background check.

Legalizing medical marijuana – For.

Legalizing recreational marijuana – On the fence.

Legalizing harder recreational drugs – Against.

NAFTA - Not enough information to have an opinion.

Off-shore drilling – On the fence.

Displaying religious symbols on public property - No problem with.

Government workers wearing religious symbols – No problem with. However, if there is a ban on jewelry and clothing with any sort of political or religious message at all, I have no problem with that either.

Student lead voluntary school prayer - No problem with.

2

I’d say you’re on the hairy edge of being libertarian.

3

I can’t really put you on a scale by British standards, but taken in combination, your positions would not seem particularly conservative.

Not all the issues are as relevant in the UK as they are in the US. For example, while there are certainly people opposed to abortion, I see no particularly strong right/left split. My own parents are opposed to abortion for basically religious reasons, but are fairly liberal.

Gun control is not a live issue here for most folks, but supporting its relaxation would be seen as quite a conservative/libertarian position. I can’t think of any mainstream politicians who advocate this, though, but I’m sure there are campaign groups.

Universal healthcare is another dead one. It’s almost compulsory to bitch and moan about it, but no politician who valued their job would seriously suggest its abolition. Even Thatcher, who would probably have loved to get rid of the NHS, wasn’t that daft.

So I guess I’d say you might seem quite centrist on our spectrum, with some conservative views.

4

U.S.- moderate conservative.

5

Never thought of myself as being close to libertarian before, but then again, I guess I don’t know that much about them.

I’ve heard it said on this board, a few times, that US liberals are considered to be to the right of UK conservatives, so I expected to be pegged pretty conservative by UK standards.

I think that describes me pretty well.
Anyway, thank you all for your replies.

6

Well, you have only picked a few issues to highlight your positions on, many of which aren’t as important to the Brits. For example, to my Americans eyes, the business about entanglement of religious symbolism and public property, religion in public schools, etc., stands out as a contentious area, but I gather that those Brits don’t mind so much; after all, they even have an established church.

7

Based on the issues you posted, you seem to generally favor personal autonomy and oppose the Iraq war.

I’d say, in this current climate, that makes you a raging liberal!

8

:eek:You take that back! Them’s fighting words!:mad:

:D(J/K)

9

Describing a person’s political views doesn’t make much sense unless you consider both economic issues and social issues. You seem only to consider social issues or issues that are not really conservative v. liberal on either social or economic issues. You also discuss several issues that the Supreme Court has clearly ruled on, so it’s not really a political issue.

So I guess in my book that makes you a Damifino. :stuck_out_tongue:

10

Damifino = Damn if I know?

And go ahead, give me some economic issues. Like McCain, I don’t know as much about the economy as I should, but I’ll give it a shot.:smiley:

11

Well, I assigned a number to each of your stances just based on my gut reaction of how conservative each one struck me:

Averaging them out…let’s see…I get, uh…1.846. On a scale of 1 to 10, you are 1.846 conservative in my opinion. Not very conservative at all!

Some more categories you might use that could shift the numbers:

Gay Adoption

Affirmative Action

Euthanasia

Welfare Reform

Flat Tax

12

What are 7 - 10?

Or you could weighting some of the existing categories differently from others. Or calculate a geometric mean or a logarithmic mean rather than an arithmetic one. Or…

But really, trying to quantify this as a real number is silly. It would be far better to just discuss the nature of the OP’s conservatism in ordinary language, what kind of affinity he might feel for various parties, how his views jibe compare to the mainstream in different countries, etc. Made-up numbers are meaningless; the followup discussion is where everything useful happens.

13

Hey, the guy explicitly asked for a number (and even gave one to himself), and after 10 posts nobody had given him what he wanted. So why not? The number might seem silly to you, but it’s his thread, and that’s what he asked for.

14

Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like I was attacking you. Consider that message as directed at the OP, to gently advise him not to worry too much about actually getting a number.

15

10 was supposed to be right wing extremest, not 6. :smack:

Gay Adoption - No problem with it.
Affirmative Action - If you’re just talking about trying to attract women and minorities, fine. If you’re talking about quotas, set asides, and extra points, I’m totally against that.
Welfare reform - Welfare was reformed after the '94 congress came in with their Contract with America. I was pleased with that. Since then, I haven’t heard any talk about reforming it again, haven’t given it any though, and so, have no opinion on it one way or another.

16

Go here —> The Political Compass and then report back.

It’s easier to compare notes when everyone uses the same test, rather than offering different subjective perceptions of each other.

17

Whoops, forgot to answer Rodgers01 questions about Euthanasia and Flat Tax.

Euthanasia - Although I understand when people would rather die than go on living what they consider an unbearable situation, I’m trouble by involving doctors to assist in the suicide.

Flat Tax - I know there’s talk about how it would never work, but I’d love to switch to it, or something like it, or to eliminate the income tax altogether and replace it with a sales tax. Basically, anything to reform this stupid and ridiculous system where you pay taxes all year, and then after that you have to fill out a bunch of paper work to determine if what you paid was too little, too much, or just right. It would also be nice to eliminate the situation, where somebody works extra hours for a bigger paycheck, only to get a smaller one because the money they made bumped them up to a higher tax bracket.

And Indistinguishable, since there are degrees of liberalism, conservatism, and moderateness, I figured a number scale made sense.

18

As another American, I’d call you a moderate conservative.
Tossing out the issues where you’re undecided, it seems like you lean more conservative than liberal…but liberal enough to be on the moderate side of things nonetheless.
If I had to pick (realizing of course that some people do have reasons for being pro-life yet liberal or in favor of drug legalization yet conservtive and so on), this is how I’d categorize your stances on the issue:

Abortion - conservative
Gay marriage - liberal
Iraq war - liberal
School Vouchers: - conservative
Legalizing medical marijuana – liberal
Legalizing harder recreational drugs – conservative
Displaying religious symbols on public property - conservative
Government workers wearing religious symbols – conservative
Student lead voluntary school prayer - conservative
euthanasia - conservative
gay adoption - liberal
affirmative action - conservative
flat tax - conservative? (I haven’t heard much about this issue anymore since Steve Forbes ran for prez but that seems a safe guess)

So you are a conservative in my book, even though that may not be welcome news on this board. :slight_smile:

19

The OP already said he made a booboo, but my first thought was that if 6 is a right-wing extremist, Jerry Falwell is a 7, Alan Keyes an 8, Roy Moore a 9 and Strom Thurmond a 10, at least in his younger days.

Anyway, on a 0-10 scale, I’d rate the OP no more than about a 3 out of 10. I’m about as liberal as they come without having a shrine erected to Pete Seeger, and I can think of many agreement-filled discussions I’d have with said OP.

20

Well, just as Indistinguishable said, the issues you picked aren’t all live or partisan ones in the UK.

Over the last decade or so, British politics has been concerned with European Union issues, immigration, civil liberties vs protection from terrorism, economics and infrastructural type stuff like healthcare, roadbuilding and so on. Oh, and protection of the environment, or lack thereof.

So if you had views on these sorts of things, I might revise my answer.