Here I am, way away from everyone else in the thread!
If you look at the international chart at the bottom of the end-of-test page, or the U.S. Primaries or the E.U. Governments, you’ll notice that the majority of world politics happens on the line from the center of the chart to the top-right corner, which corresponds to a one axis conservative-liberal view of politics. Landing where you do, you are well described by the one axis point of view, but are more liberal than most of the world.
Did I say that the government was responsible for “making everyone happy”? No. I said that the government has responsibilities to provide the basic necessities like health and education to provide for the PURSUIT of happiness. That is, no one is going to hand it to you. You have the basic tools, it is your responsibility to make something of it. You may fail miserably, and you may succeed, but at least you had the same opportunities as everyone else.
Here’s my compass. I’m apparently a left libertarian, which might explain why I like Obama .
I’m kind of surprised at the results, but I’m also disappointed on some of the questions and responses. There were certainly things I’m not familiar with or that I’m ambivalent about that I had to choose agree or disagree on.
Several years back there was a series of threads that discussed each question on the political compass individually, the last one is here, if anyone is interested in reading about what was discovered. Of course new points will have to be brought up in a new thread, since the mods tend to lock old threads that resurface.
I think I should have been much further down, but some of the questions were seriously flawed. For example: In a civilized society, one must always have people above to be obeyed and people below to be commanded.
How to answer that question? Every civilized society needs some type of hierarchy, anarchy is a fool’s gambit, but the question is phrased in a very authoritarian manner, one that I don’t agree with at all. There will always be a hierarchy, but the ability of individuals to move up or down in that hierarchy is key to a healthy civilization. I thought about this one for a while, then reluctantly clicked “agree”, although if it was a 10 point scale my “agree” would be about a 5.000001. I suspect that question kicked me up a little on the scale.
I’m nearly dead center. I guess I’m the guy who the politicians move toward when they get nominated for a general election. I’m in the Middle of America geographically and middle of the compass politically.
As far as the “small” government thing, I’ve always meant “small” in relation to personal freedoms - let people smoke weed or visit prostitutes, etc. - not “small” when it comes to infrastructure and community/social programs.
It’s hard to say, I’m liberal in some ways and conservative in others… I’m kind of an enigma ( heh ). Seriously, I’m an environmentalist, capitalist, pro-life (where I care about all life (mother and child, elderly, animals, etc…), I believe in small government and low taxes ( I prefer a national flat tax). I worry about the Iraqi’s if we pull out and leave them high and dry yet I hate this war too. I’m glad we took down Hussain, but I am outraged by the aftermath and lack of planning.
I must have taken the test wrong, the results lined up with Nelson Mandela. C’mon guys, I’m a conservative, right? Remember me? Wacky ol’ Nate the conservative Christian? Remember, I put the “Fun” in Fundamentalist? I’m pro-life and anti-gun law. I think the gumment should mind their own damn business and stay out of my yard. I find the increasing trend toward socialism disturbing: I want to succeed on my merits, not because the system pulled me along. However I do support social programs that equalize the population rather than exploit a fortunate birth. I support the war on terror and the homeland security efforts, I’d rather give up a little convienence than sacrifice security. But I agree that Bush blew his load in 2001 and it’s been a downward spiral ever since. However I voted for him because I couldn’t even stomach Gore or Kerry, let alone envision them as leaders. But then again I plan to vote Obama, not on his position but on his strengths.
Dammit, first I find out I’m a liberal Quaker, then I find out I’m a leftist with some anarchistic traits. I’m going to quit before someone makes up a quiz about my sexual preference.
No surprise that I’m below the X-axis but I thought I’d be right on the Y-axis or slightly to the right of it.
Is there a test with more or better questions? I could argue for agreeing or disagreeing with a lot of those questions, and I wanted to answer in the middle - between agree and disagree - for several of them.