# What Pew Political Type are You? Which type is the best type? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 2, 2026, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558 "2026-06-02T03:36:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/21 "2026-06-02T12:58:53Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > For example only half of the ambivalent right think that the GOP represents them well. That would make sense, if they’re ambivalent. > [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > 2/3 of the progressive left are white non-hispanic. This also checks out. > [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Establishment liberals are highly politically engaged, have the highest education, have a similar age profile to the population as a whole, are racially and ethnically diverse, and by a huge margin are most based. Spittin’ facts right there. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/22 "2026-06-02T14:54:59Z")
I got “Establishment Liberal,” which I would say is 100% accurate. (My somewhat dubious superpower is that, despite being an academic in the humanities, I’m a completely normie, middle-of-the-road Democrat; which means I can generally tell, just by gut feel, which candidates are going to be in trouble and on which issues my fellow academic types and fellow Dopers are getting ahead of their skis.) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/23 "2026-06-02T15:13:02Z")
The perfect political poll for people that also believe in horoscopes. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/24 "2026-06-02T15:23:45Z")
What exactly is the difference between ‘progressive left’ and ‘establishment liberal’? Also as a progressive left (according to the test) I constantly fail the purity tests of the modern left because of my views on foreign policy. So even within the group labeled the progressive left, there are major divisions. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/25 "2026-06-02T15:24:40Z")
Establishment liberal which strikes me as probably accurate. Poll/Quiz has flaws but I don’t really care. It’s not as though I need to put the results on my drivers license or only date other establishment liberals now. Just an internet quiz. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/26 "2026-06-02T15:26:22Z")
I’m not really American, but I took it anyway, and it turns out that I’m the only **Democratic Mainstay** here. Huh. I don’t know what that means. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/27 "2026-06-02T15:32:47Z")
That poll is far too simplified. I pegged me as progressive left, which is inaccurate. I should fall on the low end of dem mainstays or the high end of establishment liberals. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/28 "2026-06-02T15:34:33Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > What exactly is the difference between ‘progressive left’ and ‘establishment liberal’? The establishment liberal fights harder against what the progressive leftist wants than they do the republicans, I think. At least the ones in power. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/29 "2026-06-02T15:40:19Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > The establishment liberal fights harder against what the progressive leftist wants than they do the republicans, I think. At least the ones in power. I feel like its the ‘democratic mainstays’ who value corporate interests over the interests of voters, and who think decorum should be preserved more than democracy than the establishment liberals or progressive left though. > **[9. Democratic Mainstays](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/11/09/democratic-mainstays/)** > > The largest single group as a share of the Democratic coalition. They generally favor policies that expand the social safety net and support higher taxes on corporations. But they are somewhat more hawkish than other Democratic-oriented groups on... ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/30 "2026-06-02T15:40:20Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > I got “Establishment Liberal,” which I would say is 100% accurate. Ditto for me. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/31 "2026-06-02T16:18:31Z")
They call me “Outsider Left.” I don’t care what they call me but they place it almost next to red on their stupid graph. How in hell do they figure this? ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/32 "2026-06-02T16:28:02Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > > [@SenorBeef](#): > > > > The establishment liberal fights harder against what the progressive leftist wants than they do the republicans, I think. At least the ones in power. > > I feel like its the ‘democratic mainstays’ who value corporate interests over the interests of voters, and who think decorum should be preserved more than democracy than the establishment liberals or progressive left though. That’s a problem caused by the bimodal rather than bell shaped distribution curve of the US voting public. Rather than a peak around 50 (on a far left is zero and far right is 100 curve), we have two humps, one around 35 or so, and another at 85 or 90, with a trough in the 50 to 70 range. That means that the more central party (the Democrats) have to fight for what little we still have of the center, while the party that has a large base at the extreme end rather than the bulk of their voters in the middle (the Republicans) doesn’t have to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/33 "2026-06-02T16:33:19Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’m not really American, but I took it anyway, and it turns out that I’m the only **Democratic Mainstay** here. Huh. I don’t know what that means. Typically older and nonwhite voters who are extremely loyal to the Democratic brand and liberal on racial and economic issues but have relatively conservative views on social issues and foreign policy. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/34 "2026-06-02T16:33:31Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > They call me “Outsider Left.” I don’t care what they call me but they place it almost next to red on their stupid graph. How in hell do they figure this? It is measuring commitment to Dem and Pub political parties – not liberal / conservative values. It’s not obvious because there is some correlation between the two concepts (especially on the two edges). Outsider Left should be near the center because this group is not happy with the Dem party. * * * The poll doesn’t need to understand the nuances of each person’s worldview to drop them into 1 of 9 buckets. Most of the effort is figuring out which of 2 or 3 buckets a person should be in. The business or prison questions don’t need to capture exactly where you stand on those issues. Your answers just need to be useful enough to distinguish your bucket. The original surveys of 10k people probably included several additional questions about businesses and prison and Pew determined that they can boil it down to the ones they asked. > [@SenorBeef](#): > > In 2026? Really? This poll is based on data from 2021. > [@Railer13](#): > > > [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > > > I got “Establishment Liberal,” which I would say is 100% accurate. > > Ditto for me. Same same ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/35 "2026-06-02T16:35:18Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > What exactly is the difference between ‘progressive left’ and ‘establishment liberal’? It looks like it’s just that the progressives want more “sweeping and far-reaching” changes than the liberals do. Whatever that means. There’s a lot of vagueness in these definitions. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/36 "2026-06-02T16:37:24Z")
> [@CaveMike](#): > > Outsider Left should be near the center because this group is not happy with the Dem party. But they’re not centrists, they’re never going to vote Republican. I think this is actually the group that the Green Party voters are coming from, but as it says the vast majority of them voted for Biden. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/37 "2026-06-02T16:39:32Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > > [@Alessan](#): > > > > I’m not really American, but I took it anyway, and it turns out that I’m the only **Democratic Mainstay** here. Huh. I don’t know what that means. > > Typically older and nonwhite voters who are extremely loyal to the Democratic brand and liberal on racial and economic issues but have relatively conservative views on social issues and foreign policy. Exactly. And there are still many of those voters around. They still make up the mainstay of the Democratic Party. What happened is that in the mid 1990s, when Newt Gingrich came to power, is that their mirror image on the right, the Republican Mainstays, all started moving to the right, while the Democratic Mainstays stayed in the same place. That leaves a gap in the area where those Republicans used to be. The Democrats depend on attracting those few remaining center right voters, and as a side effect of trying to appeal to them, end up turning off the progressives, who are obviously not going to go to Trump but could very well stay home. ---
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/38 "2026-06-02T16:39:35Z")
10 - Outsider Left Since my political views don’t fit in a box this is no more or less accurate than any other result I’ve gotten ([ISideWith.com](http://ISideWith.com) etc) I’m not young I don’t “lean” toward Democrats and haven’t voted one since Clinton’s first term. My views of the GOP are that they are just as ineffective as Democrats, but slightly more stupid, more racist and less moral. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/39 "2026-06-02T16:40:17Z")
> [@CaveMike](#): > > This poll is based on data from 2021. Not sure that applies anymore. It’s a brave new world. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558/40 "2026-06-02T16:46:59Z")
“Progressive Liberal” Like **Smapti** , that is a bit too Centrist for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-pew-political-type-are-you-which-type-is-the-best-type/1030558.md?page=3)