This poll is not about party affiliation or historical political schools. Instead I’m going to break it down into a simple left/right alignment based upon some simple principles. Please place yourself into the category that best represents you, and use the thread to clarify, dissent, or expound upon your choice. I am not including an “other” or independent option because everyone falls somewhere along the left right line. If you are a true centrist, place yourself according to the side you vote most often for and explain in thread.
Sorry, choice four should read: AND; not: OR.
Can’t answer the poll because LEFT and RIGHT are completely undefined.
E.g. I’m a European liberal, but on many issues my Euro-leftie peers would consider me a conservative. On others, a leftie. Moreover my “conservative” views in Europe would make me a scraming pinko in the US.
I voted ‘apathetic’ as i don’t spend enough time studying politics to fit into the first category, and I don’t vote with emotion; but it wouldn’t be exactly accurate to say I don’t care or follow it at all. I also chose right, as that’s where I fall financially generally, and I consider it more important than the social scale.
For the purposes of this thread, you should consider left and right as defined by current US politics.
This is an excellent example of how to place oneself on this scale. Thanks Mr. Shine !
Where is the confused center?
IMHO, it doesn’t really exist. Even those who split their voting between the right and left like myself, tend to vote more in one direction than the other. Placing yourself into one side or the other does not mean you vote a straight ticket, accept, or support every cause that might fall under the umbrella.
To use myself as an example, I’ve voted for some conservative candidates in local elections because they were the better choice in terms of experience, and coherent policy making. On the other hand, I’ve voted left in national elections every single time because I believe that liberal policy making on the national scale is more beneficial to the public as a whole.
More often than not, I’ll vote for a left candidate if they are as qualified as the right candidate due to these views. So I placed myself into the Intellectual Left voting category.
You have no choice for those of us who are liberals on social matters, middle of the road on economic concerns, and homicidal psychopaths on foreign affairs.
Just like real life. 
What if you are Emotional Left, Intellectual Right, and apathetic all at the same time?
Not me, but just wondering.
I’m Intellectual Right and Emotional Left. These days, the tea partiers have made it easy for me to ignore my “intellectual” side.
I hear ya, my friend.
Want to form our OWN party? I’m thinking we use something like this as our cutesy animal emblem, a la a donkey or an elephant.
“Make love AND war!” 
I’m in. Please send the tee-shirt and lawn sign.
Good point. Although, being center/left-liberal (social left, economic center/liberal) by our country’s standards, I’d probably end up more or less as a far-left, deep red commie in the US, so I probably know what I ought to vote here…
I don’t agree with the left or the right, so I don’t vote.
I’m a studied and emotional centrist who votes and cares, and I do not fall under any of the poll options.
Right hand, Republicans.
Left hand, Democrats.
Same Monster.
I do not agree with all of the policies of either political party.
None of these options really suited me; if I was a US American, I’d probably be an Independent because both of your parties are such shit.
Talking about the “left or the right” without specifying whether one is discussing fiscal or social issues doesn’t make much sense to me (as someone on the right fiscally and on the left socially). However, since I mostly discuss fiscal issues on the SDMB, and since I mostly vote these days based on fiscal issues, I chose intellectual right.
I don’t understand why ethical can’t be associated with intellectual. You can be intellectually informed on matters and make a decision on what is moral from that.
Still, I have to say that, right now, I’d probably vote Democrat, even if the Republicans radically changed positions, due to ethical concerns in how they handle things. So I guess ethical is more important than position for me right now. It wasn’t always this way, however.