# The Political Gauge. Take the test and see how you score. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 20, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643 "2004-08-20T02:27:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/21 "2004-08-20T03:50:46Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (12). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (15). Let me try again. I’m sure I can score a double zero. ---
**Author:** ![St.Urho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@St.Urho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St.Urho)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/22 "2004-08-20T03:59:07Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (11). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (22). ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/23 "2004-08-20T04:00:30Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (40). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Conservative (83). Yep. Didn’t like any of the immigration answers at all (I want looser laws and stricter enforcement). Has anyone been surprised yet? ---
**Author:** ![Spree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Spree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spree)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/24 "2004-08-20T04:06:25Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (11). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (20). I know I’ve been going more left the last few years, but I still think of myself as a moderate , so I’m a bit surprised. I’m in Texas, so I always thought I was crazy-liberal for this state, but not so much for other areas of the U.S. Who knew I was such a bleeding-heart pinko commie? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kluge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a183cd/32.png) [@Kluge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kluge)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/25 "2004-08-20T04:17:15Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (17). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (36). Results may appear farther left than they actually are. I had a tendency to lean left when I wasn’t quite satisfied with all answers (out of, you know, habit). ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/26 "2004-08-20T04:21:27Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (23). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Conservative (71). ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/27 "2004-08-20T04:24:51Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (24). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (52). ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/28 "2004-08-20T04:34:58Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (46). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Conservative (70). Yeah, that’s about right for me. Definitely like this much better than the compass in terms of accuracy of questions, answers, and results. -K. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/29 "2004-08-20T04:37:50Z")
non fiscal-Moderate Liberal(30) fiscal-Centrist(45) so what does that make me? ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/30 "2004-08-20T04:40:55Z")
ALL right, Reeder! Get in here and take this. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/31 "2004-08-20T04:41:44Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (60). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Conservative (67). I didn’t like the phrasing on some of the answer options. I tend to believe that I’m closer to Centrist. ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/32 "2004-08-20T04:48:57Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (32). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Conservative (62). Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/33 "2004-08-20T04:52:36Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (12). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (28). Yep, fair enough. Probably would have been more lefty on the non-fiscal issues, had they phrased a couple of the questions differently. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/34 "2004-08-20T05:03:03Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (9). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (23). I would have put me slightly more moderate on fiscal (not a lot more moderate, maybe 25-30). I wonder how the “high/medium/low” worked into it. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/35 "2004-08-20T05:04:07Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (57). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (60). Once again, my extremism shows through. ---
**Author:** ![Leonard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@Leonard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leonard)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/36 "2004-08-20T05:05:04Z")
What’s the deal? I can’t get any page on this site to work at all. Looking at everyone else’s post times, it seems I’m the only one. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/37 "2004-08-20T05:15:00Z")
Much more USA-centric than the compass, I must say. It’s very focused on specific political issues in the US, where the compass is largely theoretical. Does my answer on gun control (went with the least regulatory non-US-specific answer) move me towards non-fiscal liberal, like it should? Or does the test just pigeonhole “liberal” and “conservative” as Democrats and Republicans, who are each of them arbitrary and messy conglomerations of self-contradictory positions, so that being opposed to (most) gun control makes me “conservative”? ---
**Author:** ![Necro\_Romancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Necro\_Romancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necro_Romancer)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/38 "2004-08-20T05:15:54Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (50). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (49). Interesting, I didn’t expect this. Does this mean I get to wave the shaft at both sides? ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/39 "2004-08-20T05:17:13Z")
_On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (50). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Conservative (92)._ Looks like they hit it on the head. ---
**Author:** ![Netbrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71e660/32.png) [@Netbrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Netbrian)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/40 "2004-08-20T05:30:38Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (4). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (35). Fiscal is about right, and I can live with this rating. If I put a bit more thought into my answers, I might end up being further to the right fiscally. But I think I’m about right non-fiscally. I suspect that the reason behind my particular score is due to me putting low priority on certain issues (while I tend to lean very liberal on gun control, it is also an incredibly low priority for me in the scheme of things. Were I a politican, that’s one of the issues where my stance would be determined by “what plays well in swing states”.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643.md?page=3)