Are you a conservative or a liberal?

Or in-between?

Published on May 2, 2007 By Draginol In Politics

Here is a very simple test which will help you figure out where you stand between the two dominant political philosophies of our time: American conservative or American liberal. After each answer is a value, write that value down.

1) Do you believe that the best way to have a safe society is...

A] Reduce the number of fire arms floating around in our population [ 1]
B] To encourage lawful citizens to possess fire arms [-1]

2) Do you believe the best way to promote a racially fair society is...

A] Reward and encourage companies and universities to have a racially diverse environment. [1]
B] To pass laws that forbid employers or universities from using race as a selection criteria. [-1]

3) Do you think that rich people got rich because..

A] They got lucky or cheated the system or inherited it. [1]
B] They worked hard and made good decisions. [-1]

4) Do you think the federal government should be..

A] There to make sure that society is as just and fair as possible [1]
B] As small as possible -- the government the governs best governs least [-1]

5) The policies that should be pursued should be based on

A] Compassion and good intentions [1]
B] Measurable results of effectiveness [-1]

SCORING:

5 to 2: You are a liberal.

-1 to 1 You are in the mushy middle.

-2 to -5 You are a conservative.

What's your score?

Comments (Page 2)

Locamama

on May 02, 2007

I'm in the mushy middle - mushy? I resemble that remark. I consider myself to be left leaning. I'm a registered Democrat.

Texas Wahine

on May 02, 2007

-3, -4 if you count the extra question.

Moderateman

on May 02, 2007

1) Do you believe that the best way to have a safe society is...

A] Reduce the number of fire arms floating around in our population [ 1]
B] To encourage lawful citizens to possess fire arms [-1] XX

2) Do you believe the best way to promote a racially fair society is...

A] Reward and encourage companies and universities to have a racially diverse environment. [1]
B] To pass laws that forbid employers or universities from using race as a selection criteria. [-1] XX

3) Do you think that rich people got rich because..

A] They got lucky or cheated the system or inherited it. [1]
B] They worked hard and made good decisions. [-1] XX

4) Do you think the federal government should be..

A] There to make sure that society is as just and fair as possible [1]
B] As small as possible -- the government the governs best governs least [-1] XX

5) The policies that should be pursued should be based on

A] Compassion and good intentions [1]
B] Measurable results of effectiveness [-1] XX

how can this be? for I Am Moderateman, not conservativeman

greywar

on May 02, 2007

I scored a -5 with the caveat of "Fascist". Thats a bad thing right?

Noumenon72

on May 02, 2007

Here's how I'd do a second draft of the test, separating out "libertarian" from conservative. What are you now? (I skipped question 2 because it was too confusing for me).

1) Do you believe that the best way to have a safe society is...

A] Reduce the number of fire arms floating around in our population [+1 liberal]
B] To encourage lawful citizens to possess fire arms [+1 libertarian]
C] To provide more firepower to the police and army [+1 conservative]

3) Do you think that rich people got rich because..

A] They got lucky or cheated the system or inherited it. [+1 bellyacher]
B] The system rewarded their behavior. [+1 liberal]
C] They worked hard and made good decisions. [+1 libertarian]
D] They have superior business sense and economic skills -- they deserved it. [+1 conservative]

If I can expand on point B a little bit, the idea is that some societies have a system that rewards people for being religious figures, some for being well born, some for contributing things of value to society. Some reward being corrupt or having more guns. The liberal insight is that just because your society says people deserve what they have -- what they earn or what they can take or what they were born with or what the religious rules say they get -- doesn't necessarily mean they deserve it. It depends on what you think of the system.

4) Do you think the federal government should be..

A] Interfering in society to protect people from injustice and economic mishaps [+1 liberal]
B] As small as possible -- the government the governs best governs least [+1 libertarian]
C] Interfering in society to make it stronger economically, militarily, and morally [+1 conservative]

5) The policies that should be pursued should be based on

A] Compassion and good intentions [+1 liberal]
B] Measurable results of effectiveness [+1 utopian]
C] Patriotism and morality [+1 conservative]

Draginol

on May 02, 2007

I think your changes reflect more of how a liberal views conservatives than anything else.

Conservatives have a lot in common with libertarians on many issues. Christian conservatives may be a type of conservative but they are not pure conservatives.

Libertarians are not conservatives in many areas including:

Don't believe in regulating controlled substances
Don't believe the government has the right to zone property for residential, commercial, etc.
Would abolish the EPA, FDA, and other regulatory services of the government

Those are 3 things that conservatives are obviously not in favor of in general. There is overlap between a conservative and a libertarian just as there is overlap between a liberal and a socialist.

Taranis

on May 03, 2007

-4 conservative

Noumenon72

on May 03, 2007

I think your changes reflect more of how a liberal views conservatives than anything else.

Hey, I pride myself on being sympathetic enough to conservatives to not misrepresent them on something like this, accidentally or on purpose. If there's bias in it it's from my libertarian side.

The way I read what you're saying, you think I portrayed Christians and libertarians as conservatives, but you're saying they are separate in some ways. As far as Christianity, I was careful to include some secular values every time I mentioned morality to show it's not conservatives' only goal. And of course liberals vote their morals too, but when I think of a government that believes the moral fiber of a nation is what makes it great, I think conservative.

As far as libertarian vs conservative, I know there are differences and I know there's overlap. The same is true for libertarian vs liberal. I came to liberal via libertarian, actually. Here's how I see it:

* The authoritarian conservative would keep the FDA to create a healthier market for food and drugs.
* The libertarian conservative would get rid of the FDA because the market can handle it. Let people take chances on risky drugs if they feel the risk is worth it, and companies that put out killer drugs will go bankrupt.
* The libertarian liberal would get rid of the FDA because the chances are the companies it regulates will eventually take it over and use it to do their testing at taxpayer expense, stamp all their products "Grade A," and generally discourage competition.
* The authoritarian liberal would keep the FDA because you can't trust business owners to make safe products on their own.

I don't like authoritarians, conservative or liberal. I grew up Republican because all my life the Republicans were the party of smaller government, but in the Bush years we've started to see a gap growing between libertarians and big government conservatives. Most techies fall on the libertarian side of that divide, and I think you do too, more so than not. Remember how the OKCupid test Link put you in the middle ground between the two? You're not a Cory Doctorow libertarian or even a Dave Barry libertarian, but you're more like a P.J. O'Rourke libertarian.

Draginol

on May 03, 2007

N - Let me find that political map.

Just a sec..

Draginol

on May 03, 2007

Okay, Noumenon here is what I was getting at:

In the political spectrum, conservatives would be most of the top part and (American) liberals would be most of the bottom part. A libertarian is probably a type of conservative in most cases but a conservative is not necessarily a libertarian.

Draginol

on May 03, 2007

You can take the test above here:

http://www.okcupid.com/politics

drmiler

on May 03, 2007

No surprise here:

Social Conservative
(38% permissive)

and an...

Economic Conservative
(76% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Republican (76e/38s)

You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.

In the middle of the upper left hand quadrant.

MasonM

on May 03, 2007

Conservative. No big shocker there.

KarmaGirl

on May 03, 2007

-3, no shock there.

Noumenon72

on May 05, 2007

I was gonna post another image of the test with your answers plotted on the graph and say, "See, those are all libertarian answers!" But when I actually looked at them, answer #2 is Republican, 3 is capitalist, 5 is centrist, and only 1 and 4 are libertarian. So I guess you covered the spectrum of conservative pretty well.

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