# What political party am I? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 31, 2019, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705 "2019-01-31T02:41:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/21 "2019-01-31T18:21:09Z")
Yeah I’m 67% Women’s Equality Party! It said I’m: 67% Women’s Equality (?) 64% Peace and Freedom (?) 56% Socialist 53% Democratic 53% Green 44% Republican 44% Libertarian 44% Constitution The first 5 on that list are “Big Government”, which I am not in favor of, and I’m not in favor of Socialism in reality. In theory it could be ok but I don’t see how it could work with the weakness of man. All in all I’m not sure I believe that quiz but it does show my beliefs are all over. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/22 "2019-01-31T18:57:38Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Yeah I’m 67% Women’s Equality Party! I came out Constitution, Libertarian, Democratic, Women’s Equality and Republican. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/23 "2019-01-31T19:21:09Z")
Me - 77-78% Green, Women’s Equality, Dem, Soc. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/24 "2019-01-31T19:31:24Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I was going to observe the inconsistency (original intent vs marry whomever?) Sorry, but since the US Constitution says nothing about marriage, I’m going to have to ask you to explain how “original intent” is inconsistent with “marry whomever”. As to the OP. I’m going to guess that you are a member of the [Littleman Mustache Party](https://www.amazon.com/slp/little-man-mustache-party-supplies/y8726d9pyjsb4ep). ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/25 "2019-01-31T20:20:20Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Sorry, but since the US Constitution says nothing about marriage, I’m going to have to ask you to explain how “original intent” is inconsistent with “marry whomever”. Not sure how the original Constitution could be read to support marriage of a white person to 3/5 of a black person. Moreover, since the Constitution is silent as to same sex marriage, an “original intent” advocate would support all types of state limits on same. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/26 "2019-01-31T20:26:25Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Yeah I’m 67% Women’s Equality Party! Huh. I got 78% Women’s Equality and 76% Socialist. Of the major parties, 75% Democratic, 50% Libertarian, 37% Republican. I find those results a bit odd. I tend to be score more libertarian and much less socialist on these sorts of quizzes, typically ending up strongly libertarian on social issues, and right on the middle for economic issues. Like when I read the OP’s political views, I find myself much more in common with him than not. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/27 "2019-01-31T21:02:16Z")
Let’s say that there are 20 or so relatively independent political variables. Just for sake of argument. Mapping all the possibilities of that multidimensional political space onto 2 or 3 party label outcomes results in a mess. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/28 "2019-01-31T22:01:02Z")
I like the idea of “How important is this to you?” But I didn’t see how to enter the code. Browser problem? ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/29 "2019-01-31T22:05:25Z")
You might find this political compass interesting as it doesn’t try to slot you into a party and goes beyond the narrow US models of left and right > **[The Political Compass](https://politicalcompass.org/)** > > A typology of political opinions plotted on 2 dimensions: economic and social. It does chart the US parties in a few elections, and the explanations and FAQs provide important context. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/30 "2019-01-31T22:14:54Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Why not evaluate individual candidates based on their stated positions and voting record, rather than what team they play for? Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple, at least when it comes to national-level US politics. I’m a registered democrat. I’d say my view is closer to D than R on about 80% of issues, which is sufficient for me to happily identify as a democrat without constantly having to throw out qualifiers and addenda and so forth. Nonetheless, I can certainly imagine an election in which I thought that the Republican candidate was just better, more qualified, more sensible, less corrupt, more in-agreement-with-me, than the Dem candidate. Unfortunately, for any of the prominent federal positions (prez, senator, congressman), there are ripple effects which would make it VERY hard for me not to vote for the democrat. In congress, the party that has control of congress is MASSIVE, as we have seen with the reign of awfulness of Mitch McConnell. Even a GOP candidate who I greatly respected would, assuming they are GOP enough to be running as a GOP candidate, caucus for McConnell as majority leader. That’s a MASSIVE factor, quite possibly as large a negative (from my perspective) as whatever benefit I would get from having a senator who I genuinely liked and respected. As for presidents, there’s the issue of supreme court justices. Now, I agree that that’s not 100% a slam dunk. If there was a candidate who I thought was a revolutionary thinker who identified as GOP but basically had a unique and personal political philosophy, which I thought was super awesome, then maybe he would nominate SC justices who followed his own political philosophy. But in the much more likely case of “sure, candidate A is a dem and candidate B is GOP, but candidate A is lackluster and corrupt, and candidate B is brilliant and I totally respect them”, the fact that candidate B is still nearly certain to nominate conservative justices, and the longlasting effect of that, means that I would still likely vote for the democratic candidate. And, frankly, I think that’s a shame. I think it’s a weakness of our system. I can certainly see the original intent of the checks-and-balances and entwinements between the prez and congress and the SC (SC nominations, having to sign laws, vetoing), but it does make it VERY hard for me to not vote for someone of “my” party. And it’s not because I’m a mindless team-playing sheeple, it’s because that’s what the system motivates me to do. ---
**Author:** ![Littleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@Littleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Littleman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2019, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/31 "2019-02-01T02:59:53Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > You sound fiscally conservative, socially liberal and disinterested in identity politics. You also sound like a supporter of democracy and the constitution. > > The issue, for you, is that neither party really represents your views. > > The democrats want to expand the welfare state with spending programs and higher taxes while the Republicans are motivated by identity politics and are hostile to democracy. > > You’re maybe a moderate republican. Political ideology is largely geographic. The south is conservative, the west coast and northeast are liberal. > > You’d probably be a Schwarzenegger republican, Eisenhower republican, northeast republican, etc. Something like that. > > You’d probably be a new Era enterpriser under the pew political typology quiz. Probably about right …though I’m guessing here maybe more than you are since half of that I never heard of until now. ---
**Author:** ![Littleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@Littleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Littleman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2019, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/32 "2019-02-01T03:01:21Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I like the idea of “How important is this to you?” But I didn’t see how to enter the code. Browser problem? When I did it it took a while after the page appeared to be loaded before it would let me highlight a dot for that option. ---
**Author:** ![Littleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@Littleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Littleman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2019, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/33 "2019-02-01T03:04:41Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Most people aren’t part of a political party. Why would you want to join one? The viable US parties are big tent parties. That means it’s almost 100% likely that you’ll disagree with people in your chosen party, and agree with people in the opposing party on some subset of their platform. Why not evaluate individual candidates based on their stated positions and voting record, rather than what team they play for? It basically just always confused me. Everybodies a Dem or a republican and I see so many people Hardline that and choose a team while I never could. ---
**Author:** ![Littleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@Littleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Littleman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/34 "2019-02-01T03:12:23Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple, at least when it comes to national-level US politics. I’m a registered democrat. I’d say my view is closer to D than R on about 80% of issues, which is sufficient for me to happily identify as a democrat without constantly having to throw out qualifiers and addenda and so forth. > > Nonetheless, I can certainly imagine an election in which I thought that the Republican candidate was just better, more qualified, more sensible, less corrupt, more in-agreement-with-me, than the Dem candidate. > > Unfortunately, for any of the prominent federal positions (prez, senator, congressman), there are ripple effects which would make it VERY hard for me not to vote for the democrat. In congress, the party that has control of congress is MASSIVE, as we have seen with the reign of awfulness of Mitch McConnell. Even a GOP candidate who I greatly respected would, assuming they are GOP enough to be running as a GOP candidate, caucus for McConnell as majority leader. That’s a MASSIVE factor, quite possibly as large a negative (from my perspective) as whatever benefit I would get from having a senator who I genuinely liked and respected. > > As for presidents, there’s the issue of supreme court justices. Now, I agree that that’s not 100% a slam dunk. If there was a candidate who I thought was a revolutionary thinker who identified as GOP but basically had a unique and personal political philosophy, which I thought was super awesome, then maybe he would nominate SC justices who followed his own political philosophy. But in the much more likely case of “sure, candidate A is a dem and candidate B is GOP, but candidate A is lackluster and corrupt, and candidate B is brilliant and I totally respect them”, the fact that candidate B is still nearly certain to nominate conservative justices, and the longlasting effect of that, means that I would still likely vote for the democratic candidate. > And, frankly, I think that’s a shame. I think it’s a weakness of our system. I can certainly see the original intent of the checks-and-balances and entwinements between the prez and congress and the SC (SC nominations, having to sign laws, vetoing), but it does make it VERY hard for me to not vote for someone of “my” party. And it’s not because I’m a mindless team-playing sheeple, it’s because that’s what the system motivates me to do. That’s why I kind of like the whole second chance voting model. First pick, second pick if your first pick is so far under the competition you could choose who your vote would go to. I think it would fluidize the party system a bit more , people wouldn’t worry they were throwing away their vote on a third party so you’d get some winners and eventually a sizeable enough third party or group of other in office that we wouldn’t have these political stalemates since you’d have an odd number of parties. Even guarantee the other group would have to be appealed to by the current two in some cases, like tie breakers. ---
**Author:** ![Littleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ccd318/32.png) [@Littleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Littleman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2019, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/35 "2019-02-01T03:15:00Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Sorry, but since the US Constitution says nothing about marriage, I’m going to have to ask you to explain how “original intent” is inconsistent with “marry whomever”. > > As to the OP. I’m going to guess that you are a member of the [Littleman Mustache Party](https://www.amazon.com/slp/little-man-mustache-party-supplies/y8726d9pyjsb4ep). Totally nailed it! That’s my party ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2019, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/36 "2019-02-01T04:54:10Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Huh. I got 78% Women’s Equality and 76% Socialist. Of the major parties, 75% Democratic, 50% Libertarian, 37% Republican. The one thing that surprised me was that my highest (Constitution) was only 60% and Democratic/Women’s Equality/Republican all fell within about 5% from 45-40%. I came out grouped a little closer than I would have suspected. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2019, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/37 "2019-02-01T05:32:35Z")
I sympathize with the OP. I don’t fit the radicals that seem to increasingly dominate the two major political parties. I wish we could drop the tribalism and come together to what’s best for the country and the world. In fact I think most Americans would agree about what problems we face and a general direction we should look for the solution. It’s kind of depressing that we have this unprecedented ability to communicate but we use it to shout at each other, build echo chambers, look at butt cheeks, and gossip about Kardashians. I’d change it if I could, but, like anything worth doing, it wouldn’t be easy and I’ve got shit to do. _depressed emoji_ ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2019, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/38 "2019-02-01T06:13:09Z")
The “How Important?” function on that poll seems to be buggy. “Somewhat” was extremely difficult to click–the clickable are seemed to be outside the dot. The other options seemed to work fine. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2019, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/39 "2019-02-01T06:14:38Z")
> [@Littleman](#): > > That’s why I kind of like the whole second chance voting model. > First pick, second pick if your first pick is so far under the competition you could choose who your vote would go to. > > I think it would fluidize the party system a bit more , people wouldn’t worry they were throwing away their vote on a third party so you’d get some winners and eventually a sizeable enough third party or group of other in office that we wouldn’t have these political stalemates since you’d have an odd number of parties. Even guarantee the other group would have to be appealed to by the current two in some cases, like tie breakers. I like second chance voting for the opposite reason–it will reduce the influence of small parties in close elections and ultimately eliminate them. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2019, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705/40 "2019-02-01T06:21:26Z")
> [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](#): > > I sympathize with the OP. I don’t fit the radicals that seem to increasingly dominate the two major political parties. I wish we could drop the tribalism and come together to what’s best for the country and the world. In fact I think most Americans would agree about what problems we face and a general direction we should look for the solution. > > It’s kind of depressing that we have this unprecedented ability to communicate but we use it to shout at each other, build echo chambers, look at butt cheeks, and gossip about Kardashians. I’d change it if I could, but, like anything worth doing, it wouldn’t be easy and I’ve got shit to do. _depressed emoji_ Voters’ stances on many issues probably form a bell-curve shape, and America used to have two “big tent” parties that accommodated wide bell curves of opinion. Despite huge political fighting, bipartisan consensuses emerged. Way back in 1900 the D’s supported anti-trust legislation but it was the R, Teddy Roosevelt, who got it passed. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed with strong bipartisan support. The very next year, [the Voting Rights Act](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/dc/Remarks_on_the_Signing_of_the_Voting_Rights_Act_%28August_6%2C_1965%29_Lyndon_Baines_Johnson.ogg/Remarks_on_the_Signing_of_the_Voting_Rights_Act_%28August_6%2C_1965%29_Lyndon_Baines_Johnson.ogg.mp3) was passed, again with bipartisan support. W.R. Hearst is often shown as an example that Fake News has been around for a long time but, despite all his faults, Hearst was a sincere advocate for the common man. Today’s Fake News is bought and paid for by oligarchs in Russia and kleptocrats right here in the U.S. There is no easy solution. In today’s political clime, 3rd parties or “independents” will just increase the power of the right-wing kleptocrats. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/828705.md?page=3)