[Grey Wolf]

I would have put Dean a bit more to the left of center, but otherwise, that seems accurate.

[PeachE]

yeah, no surprise i came up libertarian, leaning a little to the left. right about where the dalai lama is. i used to be right on the libertarian line.

[Kamikaze]

Hmm, I think I shifted a bit more toward libertarian this time. I think I was more of a left-winged, slightly-libertarian person before.

Economic Left/Right: -4.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.36

[Ghostavo]

I'm Ghandi?!?!?

[karajorma]

Last time I took it I was both more liberal and more left wing than Ghandi and the Dali Lama

Originally posted by Rictor
That I think is a very, very important distinction. That is essentially whats wrong with the American system, and not just in America, pretty much everywhere else too. All the major parties are aristocrats. But it is especially pronounced in America because the two party system is so entrenched, more so than in many other countries.

I'd agree with you if it weren't for one thing. The two party system might be ****e but there is nothing to stop a third party getting himself elected. The fact that despite this no one can unelect the two crappy parties in charge in America (or in the UK for that matter) is pretty much proof that the Aristocrats are correct and that the public is incapable of making important decisions.

Ironic I know but the Aristocrats keep getting elected because they are correct about democracy

[Grey Wolf]

I was at about Left/Right -1.5 and Libertarian/Authoritarian -5.5.

[Blaise Russel]

Economic: -5.88
Social: -8.36



Ye gods.

[jdjtcagle]

Well, thanks for your answer guys
I'm still looking over stuff, but I appreciate your "persuasive views"

[BlackDove]

Economic Left/Right: -4.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.49

I'm Ghandi. Go figure.

[Rictor]

jdjtcagle: I noticed that they (the PoliticalCompass website) have a reading list, covering the four major groupings of political alignment.

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/reading.html

They seem to have a fair overview of each, so I would recommend reading some of those books if you are in a position to do so. I can personally vouch for No Logo by Naomi Klein, and if you're looking for a one-stop source for reading about the Left, than Noam Chomsky is your man, and I have just recently found a collection of some (not all) of his many books, which I am currently reading through.

http://www.zmag.org/chomskybooks.htm

[Beowulf]

Constitutionalists.

[jdjtcagle]

Originally posted by Rictor
jdjtcagle: I noticed that they (the PoliticalCompass website) have a reading list, covering the four major groupings of political alignment.

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/reading.html

They seem to have a fair overview of each, so I would recommend reading some of those books if you are in a position to do so. I can personally vouch for No Logo by Naomi Klein, and if you're looking for a one-stop source for reading about the Left, than Noam Chomsky is your man, and I have just recently found a collection of some (not all) of his many books, which I am currently reading through.

http://www.zmag.org/chomskybooks.htm

I'll be sure to check up on this

[Liberator]

Originally posted by Aspa
[problary OT]

Politicians. We need a new way to look at them. They should be the peoples *****es, not some kind of petty selfimportant asshole trying to lord it around.

Take away their clothes and put em in a big brother bunker for constant surveillance, I say.

The solution is non-reversable term limits for all public officials at every level(federal, state, local).

I'm sorry, that survey is crap.  It showed me as being much further left of center than John Kerry.  Not to mention that there is no way in hell that Kerry, John Edwards and the rest are anywhere near that far right.

[Bobboau]

have you seen some of the "screaming liberals" you'd be suprised how far a wimp like Kerry would get pushed to the center when you factor in some of the extreemists.

and term limits isn't 'the' solution, htough it would be a step in the right direction

[Rictor]

Liberator, Bobbaou, here is a (partial) explaination:
http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/extremeright.html

Also, their FAQ addresses of your concerns regarding the validity of the metric. Read it.

edit: a step in the right direction might also be to ban corporate campaign donations altogether. Corporations have no business messing around in politics, since the result is well documented and highly suspect. Make it so that large entities, those who would stand to benefit from such-and-such a person getting elected are incapable of providing immense funds to support their candidate. I don't know the specifics of the campaign finance reform stuff thats being discussed in the US, but I think its likely that it includes something along the lines of what I just suggested.

Originally posted by PeachE
it's quite possible it is crap, but on a global scale, liberals in america are actually pretty conservative.

yup. this is also true for the Britain. Both Bush, Kerry and Blair (not to mention Edwards and some other Democrats) are not only right of center, they're also authoritarians (aristocrats using Jefferson's example). Same goes for Dems such as Madeline Albright, Welsley Clark and others. Berluscioni (sp?) is also in that category, though I don't think that comes as a surprise.

[PeachE]

term limits aren't the solution for anything. the problem isn't that people are in office too long. the problem is that americans don't give a **** anymore and the ones that do give a **** vote strictly party lines. term limits doesn't fix this problem.

Originally posted by Liberator
I'm sorry, that survey is crap.  It showed me as being much further left of center than John Kerry.  Not to mention that there is no way in hell that Kerry, John Edwards and the rest are anywhere near that far right.

it's quite possible it is crap, but on a global scale, liberals in america are actually pretty conservative.

[Beowulf]

Just for the record, the Kerry-Edwards ticket is the most liberal ticket in the history of the United States.

Kerry is the most liberal congressman; Edwards is the fourth.



I don't know why they're pretending to be conservative...

[Bobboau]

beacse the left people will vote for notbush no matter what, so he's trying to get as many fence sitters as he can, and he figures it'd be better to play to the right side of the fence than the left side.

[Rictor]

If thats true, and I don't believe it is, that only shows how far US standards are from the rest of the world. Anyone with such an agressive foreign policy as Kerry-Edwards, that embodies traditional liberal values (abortion, gay marriage, environment, social programs) to such a slight degree, can hardly be called liberal. If Kerry is liberal, then that word (as interpereted today, not the classical definition which is quite different) is meaningless.

I believe the website accurately charts the position of various politicians on the scale. Its only if you have certain pre-concived notions about who is what, mostly unscientific, that you will try to fight against it. They (the website) uses voting records, just about the most accurate source of data available.

[Beowulf]

Originally posted by Rictor
If thats true, and I don't believe it is, that only shows how far US standards are from the rest of the world. Anyone with such an agressive foreign policy as Kerry-Edwards, that embodies traditional liberal values (abortion, gay marriage, environment, social programs) to such a slight degree, can hardly be called liberal. If Kerry is liberal, then that word (as interpereted today, not the classical definition which is quite different) is meaningless.

I believe the website accurately charts the position of various politicians on the scale. Its only if you have certain pre-concived notions about who is what, mostly unscientific, that you will try to fight against it. They (the website) uses voting records, just about the most accurate source of data available.

Well Kerry supports those things now, in order to--as Bobboau stated--win fence-sitting votes.

You see, Kerry has supported just about both sides of every issue. Honestly.