Left News and Views

We all like to think we know where we are on the political spectrum, but you might be surprised. I’ve always considered myself a liberal with some libertarian leanings. Since I’m writing on a blog calling for a left, or liberal, viewpoint, I thought it only fair to share with my readers the results I obtained from various online sources.

According to this, I’m actually a centrist.

CENTRISTS espouse a “middle ground” regarding government control of the economy and personal behavior. Depending on the issue, they sometimes favor government intervention and sometimes support individual freedom of choice.

Centrists pride themselves on keeping an open mind, tend to oppose “political extremes,” and emphasize what they describe as “practical” solutions to problems.

Here are some other political quizzes you might enjoy, maybe even be enlightened by:

PoliticalQuiz .net says I’m more of a hardcore democrat.

• Conservative/Progressive score: 10 You are a social progressive. You generally consider yourself a humanist first. You probably think that religion and patriotism go too far in society. You probably consider yourself to be a citizen of Earth first rather than a citizen of your country.
• Capitalist Purist/Social Capitalist score: 12 You’re a Social Capitalist, you think that, left to its own, Capitalism leaves a lot of people behind. You think that Health Care should be free to all, that the minimum wage should be raised, and that the government should provide jobs to all that are capable of having them. You likely hated the Bush tax cuts, and believe that the middle class has gotten poorer, and the rich have gotten richer over the past several years. The far extreme of social capitalism is socialism.
• Libertarian/Authoritarian score: 3 You are libertarian. You think that the government is making way too many unnecessary laws that are taking away our innate rights. You believe that the government’s job is primarily to protect people from harming other people, but after that they should mind their own business, and if we give the government too much power in controlling our lives, it can lead to fascism.
• Pacifist/Militarist score: 1 You’re a Pacifist. You are angered that the United States thinks it should dominate the world through its military force. You think that the only time war is necessary is when we are in direct danger of being attacked. You also believe the US spends way too much of its money on defense, as we can practically cut it in half and still easily defend ourselves, and use that money to fix all our economic problems.

Overall, you would most likely fit into the category of Hardcore Democrat

Still not exactly what I was expecting, but probably closer to the “real” me. Let’s try another one:

PoliticalCompass.org questionnaire is much longer and broader in scope.

My political compass

Economic Left/Right: -7.25

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.82

I think I like being over with Gandhi, Mandela and the Dalai Lama.

Here are a few more links to some interesting political “sorters”:

The Enhanced-Precision Political Quiz (I’m a Social Liberal here.)

The Political Spectrum Quiz (I’m a left moderate social libertarian.)

Beyond Red Vs. Blue (Liberal)

The Politics Test (Socialist. The test was fun.)

The Moral Politics Test

Political Ideology Quiz