# Suggestion: Poll for political leanings **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 11, 2012, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-poll-for-political-leanings/609154 "2012-01-11T13:03:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-poll-for-political-leanings/609154/21 "2012-01-18T15:39:18Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > Well, as applied to those among us who have participated in the poll referred to above, it’s not telling me anything I didn’t already know: > > 47% are solid liberal > 28% are something called “post-modern” > 15% are libertarian > 4% are in the two categories designed for the right “Post-Moderns” is the newest and most interesting category in this typology. If there’s a “wave of the future,” the Post-Moderns are it. > [@](#): > > **Basic Description:** Well-educated and financially comfortable. Post-Moderns are supportive of many aspects of government though they take conservative positions on questions about racial policy and the social safety net. Very liberal on social issues. Post-Moderns were strong supporters of Barack Obama in 2008, but turned out at far lower rates in 2010. > > **Defining values:** Strongly supportive of regulation and environmental protection. Favor the use of diplomacy rather than military force to ensure peace. Generally positive about immigrants and their contributions to society. > > **Who they are:** The youngest of the typology groups (32% under age 30); a majority are non-Hispanic white (70%) and have at least some college experience (71%). Nearly a third (31%) are unaffiliated with any religious tradition. Half live in either the Northeast (25%) or the West (25%). A majority (58%) lives in the suburbs. > > **Lifestyle notes:** 63% use social networking. One-in-five (20%) regularly listen to NPR, 14% regularly watch The Daily Show, 10% read the New York Times. 31% trade stocks and 53% have a passport. ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_Hicks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@Roger\_Hicks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_Hicks)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-poll-for-political-leanings/609154/22 "2012-01-21T11:49:46Z")
As one who has lived in several countries, including the USA, it looks to me (and to my wife, who is American) as if the whole political spectrum in the USA is somewhat to the right of the political spectrum in, say, Britain or France. In other words, an American ‘moderate’ is quite right-wing compared with a British or French ‘moderate’, or a British or French ‘moderate’ is quite left-wing next to an American ‘moderate’. Americans in general also tend to be far more religiose than most Western Europeans: the decline of the Catholic church in France in the last 50 years or so has been spectacular. Despite the historical left wing political importance of e.g. Methodists and Quakers in the UK in the 19th and early 20th century, or indeed liberation theology in Central and South America, other churches (such as the Catholic church in Franquist Spain, or American evangelicals) have often been very right wing: understandably, given their authoritarian predilections. Cheers, R. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-poll-for-political-leanings/609154/23 "2012-01-21T12:01:02Z")
Thing is, some of the classifications are very local. For example, I’m a foralist: the label only makes sense if you’re in a country which has the notion of Fueros, the description or trying to translate it to other countries’ political structures would take several paragraphs. And while **Red Fury** would call me a righty, I agree with **Roger** ’s estimate that American leftists are generally in the right in Europe. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-poll-for-political-leanings/609154/24 "2012-01-21T20:35:01Z")
> [@Roger\_Hicks](#): > > As one who has lived in several countries, including the USA, it looks to me (and to my wife, who is American) as if the whole political spectrum in the USA is somewhat to the right of the political spectrum in, say, Britain or France. In other words, an American ‘moderate’ is quite right-wing compared with a British or French ‘moderate’, or a British or French ‘moderate’ is quite left-wing next to an American ‘moderate’. Why is that, I wonder? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-poll-for-political-leanings/609154/25 "2012-01-25T00:20:50Z")
No, seriously. Why **is** that?! ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-poll-for-political-leanings/609154/26 "2012-01-25T00:37:41Z")
> [@](#): > > How about we come up with a fair listing of types on the political spectrum and then a poll so that we can see where SDMB members put themselves. An open poll so we can see the user names. It’s been done a number of times in the past…I remember participating in at least 2 myself. I think BG did a thread on this in fact (it wasn’t a poll, but I think it was one of those political quizzes you take and then post the results). > [@](#): > > To start the discussion I think the extremist of the right are the evangelicals, followed by the your basic conservative and then the fiscal conservatives. I think you are mixing up a bunch of stuff here, to be honest. You have social/religious and fiscal conservatives, broadly. Personally, I’d characterize the social conservatives and the quasi-religious types as ‘extremist of the right’, while the fiscal types can range all the way to the moderate (for conservatives) of the spectrum. Of course, there is some cross over, just like there is on the left, but my experience is that there is a pretty big distinction between social/quasi-religious conservative types and fiscal conservatives. YMMV. > [@](#): > > As for the left, the most extreme would be those that …hmmm. See, I said I’d be bad at it. Well, on the left you have social and economic liberals (more cross over there IMHO than between social and fiscal conservatives), as well as those focused on ecological or other vertical type issues (you get this on the right quite a bit as well…one trick pony types). The extreme left are, IMHO, more economic/fiscal oriented liberals these days, though that has changed, with the eco-liberal types sort of running the whole left wing spectrum from extreme to moderate (for liberals). As for this board, my guess is you are going to get a lot of basically left of center types, a few left wing and right wing extremist types, and a disproportionate (wrt the general population at large in the US) number of libertarian leaning types. Plus you have a pretty healthy mix of non-US members, who’s political spectrum is completely different than ours, and who are going to mess with any sort of poll oriented towards US political stuff. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-poll-for-political-leanings/609154/27 "2012-01-25T04:07:57Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > No, seriously. Why **is** that?! I don’t know, why do you have so many fundies? Why are there things which were hailed as “social achievements” when they happened in mainstream US churches when they’d been perfectly normal in the same churches and other countries since before Columbus set sail (or a bit after)? I think that’s a key part of the difference. The answer for the first would be linked to having had freedom of religion much earlier than other countries, so that the fringes emigrated there (and often as they split produced fringier and fringier groups); as for the second, I think it is because in countries where virtually-everybody had the same religion, religion never got commingled with ideology. Church hierarchies may remind their flocks to vote “according to Christian principles”, but nobody would expect every CoE-member in the UK to vote the same way; if it happened, heck, they could as well get rid of the expense and bother of organizing elections and just phone the Bishop’s Council. Spain has a growing share of evangelicals, but they’re divided into “gypsies” and “latin american immigrants”, the gypsies have no interest in imposing their customs on everybody else, the immigrants are teaching us to cook tamales while learning to fry mean potato omelettes themselves, and they’re all a lot more catholic than their US counterparts (a few weeks ago, a Cuban immigrant very rigidly informed me that “I do not bother with intermediaries” - three sentences after showing me pics of his daughter, María de la Caridad del Cobre… named after the advocation of Our Lady which is the patron saint of Cuba; his sons are Ignacio and Javier - I kept a straight face and did not ask his opinion of the Jesuits). As for our charismatics, they’re catholic and may as well vote for The Greens as for the social democrats, independentists (of varying social and economic orientations) or regionalists as any other catholic or atheist. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-poll-for-political-leanings/609154/28 "2012-01-25T04:31:12Z")
Self-correction (sorry, it’s 5am): rather than having freedom of religion “earlier than other countries”, the Americas in general were a place where “fringes” (whether radical or merely Jewish) could move to escape persecution back home; there was freedom of religion in actuality even in those areas where there was not in law at the same time as it was disappearing in Europe, and later the USA made it written law… at a time during which religious persecution (of any sign; the specific groups being persecuted would change with the ruler) had become standard in Europe. ---
**Author:** ![robinson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/848f3c/32.png) [@robinson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robinson)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-poll-for-political-leanings/609154/29 "2012-01-25T17:32:54Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > No, seriously. Why **is** that?! There is still a lot of frontier ethic around, and it is actively hyped by marketeers of every stripe. Emphasizes the libertarian streak and ignores economic and ecological realities of a settled and dense population. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-poll-for-political-leanings/609154/30 "2012-01-25T17:43:02Z")
I just took the Pew Typology quiz. It says I’m a “post-modern”, but I didn’t like the format. I only found one or two responses that were an accurate characterization of my views. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-poll-for-political-leanings/609154.md?page=1)