# 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:** 3
**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, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/41 "2004-08-20T05:33:46Z")
> [@Necro Romancer](#): > > 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? On the contrary, it means you get the shaft waved at you from both sides, you fiscally irresponsible, socially authoritarian jerk. _Sincerly, 40/85._ ---
**Author:** ![Brainiac4](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brainiac4/32/3534_2.png) [@Brainiac4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac4)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/42 "2004-08-20T05:43:30Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (7). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (21). Feels correct to me. I might be more Centrist on financial issues if I wasn’t such a big fan of taxing the rich to pay for social services. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/43 "2004-08-20T05:45:44Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (24). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (22). Seems about right. ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/44 "2004-08-20T06:19:30Z")
Yer all a bunch of commies. Actually, I kind of expected this result. A few solid right-wingers, a slightly larger group of far left-wingers, and a majority of people slightly left of center. That feels about right for this board. ---
**Author:** ![raindog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@raindog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raindog)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/45 "2004-08-20T06:30:46Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Conservative (72). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (47). Your score is on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being fully liberal and 100 being fully conservative. Hmmmmm It’s hard to reconcile that with my scores from the Political Compass score… ---
**Author:** ![akennett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@akennett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akennett)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/46 "2004-08-20T06:32:43Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Conservative (68). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Conservative (94). Ha! I’ve got you all beat on the Fiscal rankings, even if it was only one point ahead of **Brutus**. I guess my “live and let live” attitude shredded my conservative cred on the non-fiscal side. ---
**Author:** ![Survivor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Survivor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Survivor)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/47 "2004-08-20T06:36:46Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (7). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (15). 15 on Fiscal Issues? What the heck? How did I get to be so… _conservative_ ! I feel so dirty! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Logan84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Logan84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Logan84)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/48 "2004-08-20T06:48:30Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (29). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (19). I liked this one as I actually understood most of the questions. The ones I didn’t understand I could just pop a No Opinion on. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/49 "2004-08-20T06:52:43Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (20). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (33). I’m pretty right-wing for a Cloggie, considering the Dutch system is incredibly socialist compared to the USA. Not to mention our horror of guns and our relaxed. practical attitude towards softdrugs, gay-rights and abortion. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/50 "2004-08-20T06:54:33Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (3). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (8). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/51 "2004-08-20T07:09:46Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (57). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Conservative (92). It wasn’t a bad test at all, at least in terms of the questions. There were only a few questions where I hestitated on the answer. Somehow I’m unconfortable with being a “centrist” on anything… ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/52 "2004-08-20T07:18:40Z")
Non fiscal: strong conservative (90) Fiscal: Moderate Conservative (60) When the hell did I become moderate?!? :eek: Growing older is a bitch, folks. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/53 "2004-08-20T07:38:40Z")
> [@](#): > > On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (36). > On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Conservative (82). Hmmm, not sure what that means… ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/54 "2004-08-20T07:52:09Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (19). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Conservative (79). Yeah, that sounds about right. I’m a civil libertarian; I don’t use the capital ‘L’ because I think they take economic privatization just a teensy bit too far. I’m an ideologist, and a money system is non-ideological by nature, so we might as well regulate it with an eye toward practicality. ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/55 "2004-08-20T10:10:36Z")
Both Strong Liberal (12, 16), although I rather had to “pretend to be an American”. I thought the “No Opinion” option was a bit of a cop out, allowing people who had simply never _thought about_ a given issue to comfortably maintain their lazy apathy. ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/56 "2004-08-20T10:13:39Z")
…and the fact that I advocate significant state intervention in the economy but the test calls me a fiscally “Strong Liberal” shows just how nonsensically the word is used in America. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/57 "2004-08-20T10:40:36Z")
This “political gauge” is based on mostly american issues and current debates, so it wouldn’t make much sense for me to take this test, but out of curiosity, I tried to pick the the answers corresponding to the current french policies (or at least the answers which seemed the closest to what is done in France) in order to know how France would be politicaly situated by american standarts (I picked “medium” for all questions, and when a current policy wouldn’t apply, I picked our current conservative administration stance on the issue). So, by american standarts : On Non-Fiscal Issues, France ranks as Moderately Liberal (22). On Fiscal Issues, France ranks as a Moderately Liberal (20). So it seems that even by US standarts, we still aren’t a bunch of communists. Just a moderately liberal country. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/58 "2004-08-20T11:08:53Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (10). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (30). I thought most of the questions were well-phrased, except for this one: > [@](#): > > 1. TV/Radio > Big media conglomerates have far too much control of the nation’s airwaves and are too cozy with government. > The government should regulate the content of television and radio broadcast on public airwaves to reduce the violence and/or sex on broadcasts. > The government should let television and radio determine their own content. Individuals can make their own viewing and listening choices. > The government should provide economic incentives for corporations to focus on more family-friendly programming. > No Opinion The first option seems out of place. I think conglomerates have far too much control _and_ the government should let TV and radio determine their own content. ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/59 "2004-08-20T11:14:52Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a \*\*Strong Liberal (11). \*\* On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a \*\*Moderate Liberal (24). \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2004, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/60 "2004-08-20T11:35:07Z")
Gah, I hate these tests. > [@](#): > > 1. Tax Policy > It is unfair to tax higher income individuals more for being financially successful. The income tax should be replaced by a national sales tax. > The income tax should be reformed into a single flat tax rate such that all Americans share the burden proportionally. > The progressive income tax code in place is preferable to a flat tax rate and places the burden with those who can most easily afford it. > A larger share of the tax burden should be paid by the wealthy, and taxes on the poor and lower-middle classes should be reduced. > No Opinion Where the hell is the option to eliminate involuntary taxes altogether? > [@](#): > > 1. Faith-Based Charities > We should support tax reforms to encourage Americans to support faith-based charities, but we should not provide public money to these organizations. > The government should support faith-based charities in any way possible to both combat social ills and strengthen our nation’s moral character. > Giving faith-based charities the same government resources as secular charities is a good way to combat poverty and other social ills. > Allowing tax dollars to go to faith-based charities is a violation of the principle of separation of Church and State. > No Opinion Where is the option that it is not a violation of separation of Church and State, but a violation of free people’s consent? > [@](#): > > 1. Education and the Federal Government > Public education is primarily a local issue and should be left to state and local governments. > The public school system in the U.S. is failing and the federal government must support school vouchers to give children the opportunity to attend private schools. > The federal government should both provide more funding and set higher standards for the public school system. > The federal government has a responsibility to fund education, but should allow the decision making to occur at the local levels. > No Opinion Where is the option to remove the responsiblity for education from government period — federal, state, and local? > [@](#): > > 1. Business Regulations > Regulations are a healthy strategy for long-term growth while protecting all members of society. > The excessive environmental regulations placed on business are counterproductive and only hurt the economy. > A free market will naturally regulate the issues most important to Americans. Government should work to de-regulate industries as much as possible. > Regulation is necessary to protect both our safety and the environment from corporations only concerned with net profit. > No Opinion Where is the option to regulate coercion vigorously but to regulate nothing else? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643.md?page=4)