# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/161 "2004-08-23T04:01:15Z")
So nobody’s matched or beat my 1 for non-fiscal? Wow. ---
**Author:** ![TitoBenito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@TitoBenito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TitoBenito)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/162 "2004-08-23T04:31:15Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (28). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Conservative (62). Sounds right. ---
**Author:** ![TitoBenito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@TitoBenito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TitoBenito)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/163 "2004-08-23T04:33:12Z")
oops just realized I already posted. I thought the first one never went through. ---
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/164 "2004-08-23T07:22:46Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > I got: > On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (51). > On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (51). > Never fear, **Captain Middle-of the-road** is here! > > Dammit, how come I ended up so boring and wishy-washy. I have very strong opinions on everything. Being classified as a Centrist in this test and having very strong opinions are not necessarily a contradiction. If you have strong opinions about issues that straddle the traditional left-right divide (e.g. if you’re strongly pro-gun and strongly pro-choice), your average score on the test comes out somewhere in the middle. This is what happened in my case also. To be more informative, the test should report the variance of your score in each category (not just the mean). Or even, for each category (Fiscal/Non-fiscal), a plot of the distribution of your responses. This would reveal much more about the person than two numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/165 "2004-08-23T07:28:55Z")
> [@TitoBenito](#): > > oops just realized I already posted. I thought the first one never went through. Oh, fess up. You fiscal moderate conservatives always have to get your word in twice. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/166 "2004-08-23T15:54:50Z")
I’ve taken it several times taking the wording of the questions a little differently each time. Even though the numbers changed slightly, the overall assessment was the same each time: On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (25). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Conservative (80). I’m another one of the crossoverers. I note that with a few points in each direction I could’ve ended up in the ‘strong’ section of each category. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/167 "2004-08-23T15:56:41Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > [Updated & Improved Spreadsheet](http://www.amschwartz.net/jillandthomas/SDMBPoliticalGuage2004-08-21.xls), including additional respondents through **TitoBenito** and Scatter Chart. Nice, thanks ---
**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:** [August 23, 2004, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/168 "2004-08-23T17:06:31Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > Updated & Improved Spreadsheet, including additional respondents through TitoBenito and Scatter Chart. Not that it will come as a big shock, but there seems to be a lot more dots on the left than the right…and a larger concentration in the lower left than anywhere else. Just an observation. -XT ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/169 "2004-08-23T17:21:18Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Not that it will come as a big shock, but there seems to be a lot more dots on the left than the right…and a larger concentration in the lower left than anywhere else. Just an observation. > > -XT I noted this as well. I found myself sort of lonely in the SE quadrant. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/170 "2004-08-23T18:30:23Z")
Great work on the chart, **Sam**. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/171 "2004-08-23T19:29:20Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (40). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Conservative (74). Just to keep the work load up for people doing the chart work. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/172 "2004-08-23T19:51:02Z")
> [@](#): > > On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (17). > On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (28). No surprises there. My main thought is about what the tax cut religion has done to the language. Being for balanced budgets, fiscal soundness and prudence makes me a moderate liberal, fiscally speaking. Pre-Reagan, that would have put me in the heart of the GOP Establishment. Great scatter plot, btw. Seems like we’ve got a pretty good spread of positions here, although the dearth of points in the lower right quadrant (fiscally liberal, socially conservative) should surprise nobody here. ---
**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 23, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/173 "2004-08-23T19:59:22Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > …the dearth of points in the lower right quadrant (fiscally liberal, socially conservative) should surprise nobody here. Apparently, Bush is not an SDMB member and has not taken the test. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/174 "2004-08-23T20:39:24Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (5). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (33). Hmmm…honestly very surprising to me. I’d like to see their methodology. ---
**Author:** ![HoldenCaulfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/22d042/32.png) [@HoldenCaulfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoldenCaulfield)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/175 "2004-08-23T21:14:38Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (16). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (50). That seems about right, although I didn’t like that the pro-gun stance was tagged non-fiscally conservative. I think it would’ve been better if the non-fiscal section was based on government intervention, but I’ll just be glad they didn’t ask about Affirmative Action. ---
**Author:** ![SimonMoon5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@SimonMoon5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SimonMoon5)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/176 "2004-08-24T19:01:49Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (23). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Conservative (82). ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/177 "2004-08-25T03:55:18Z")
Much more appropriate questions than the Compass. I wanted to select two answers often, but went with the harsher one. On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (42). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Conservative (75). ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/178 "2004-08-25T03:59:02Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Strong Liberal (9). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (28). ---
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/179 "2004-08-25T06:39:47Z")
On Non-Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Moderate Liberal (39). On Fiscal Issues, you rank as a Centrist (46). Not quite what I expected. Problem is that WRT non-fiscal, I have some rather conservative views WRT my own behavior, but I favor keeping the public nose out of private business, even when it means having things I do not approve be perfectly legal. On fiscal issues, I think of myself is moderately liberal - so long as budgets are balanced. 🙂 I’m even willing to give credit for a good try at it, but blithely running deficits infuriates me. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643/180 "2004-08-25T10:11:05Z")
Yes, Tygerbryght, that’s why I wound up as centrist. I don’t have to _like_ something to want it legal. But it does mean, for all intents and purposes, I vote with the centrists. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-political-gauge-take-the-test-and-see-how-you-score/260643.md?page=10)