Would the real radicals please stand up?

[Scott C.]

Suppose every person who lives in the USA and is 18 or older is placed in one long line. The most liberal person of all is at one end and the most conservative at the other. Every other person is sorted to the correct position according to how liberal or conservative they are. Next, we divide the line contiguously into 10 groups of equal numbers of people. We number the groups from 1 to 10, with 1 being the most liberal and 10 being the most conservative.

Which group do you belong to (1-10)?
Which group do each of the following belong to?
Obama
McCain
Hillary
GW
Bill Clinton
Ronald Reagan
Michael Moore
Sean Hannity
Ann Coulter

Who are you voting for President?

If you're not voting for McCain or Obama, to which group does your candidate belong?

Which group(s) would you label as radical left?
Which group(s) would you label as liberal, but not radical?
Which group(s) would you label as moderate?
Which group(s) would you label as radical right?
Which group(s) would you label as conservative, but not radical?

Which groups do you think are most likely to vote?

Please identify each of the following positions as left-wing-whacko, liberal, moderate, conservative, or right-wing-whacko:

We need a health care system similar to that of Canada.

Abortion should only be legal in the cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in serious jeopardy.

Abortion should be legal under all circumstances.

Gay marriage should be legal.

We did the right thing to envade Iraq.

The bail out was the right thing to do.

Sometimes it's necessary to make pre-emptive strikes against nations that have threatened us, but not attacked us.

Those who make more than $500k per year should pay a significantly higher percentage of income tax than those who make $50k per year.

The minimun wage should be raised every year according to a cost of living index.

Communism is evil.

Socialism would be a good change for the USA.

Your responses will be interesting to me and we'll see where the thread goes from here.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Suppose every person who lives in the USA and is 18 or older is placed in one long line. The most liberal person of all is at one end and the most conservative at the other. Every other person is sorted to the correct position according to how liberal or conservative they are. Next, we divide the line contiguously into 10 groups of equal numbers of people. We number the groups from 1 to 10, with 1 being the most liberal and 10 being the most conservative.

Quiz! Fun times!

Which group do you belong to (1-10)?

3 or so, maybe?

Which group do each of the following belong to?

Obama - 4 to 5
McCain - 5 to 6
Hillary - 4 to 5
GW - doesn't fit.*
Bill Clinton - 4
Ronald Reagan - 7 to 8
Michael Moore - 3
Sean Hannity - don't know him. I don't get Fox News.
Ann Coulter - 7 to 8?

* I don't think Bush's policies have fit well into either the right wing or the left wing. He's done a fair bit that both political points-of-view would take issue with, IMO.

Who are you voting for President?

If I were in the US, Obama, probably.

Which group(s) would you label as radical left?

1

Which group(s) would you label as liberal, but not radical?

2

Which group(s) would you label as moderate?
3, 4, and 5.

Which group(s) would you label as radical right?

8, 9 and 10

Which group(s) would you label as conservative, but not radical?

6 and 7

Which groups do you think are most likely to vote?

The ones at the end.

Please identify each of the following positions as left-wing-whacko, liberal, moderate, conservative, or right-wing-whacko:

K. I'll do it by the range that includes the position.

We need a health care system similar to that of Canada.

Left-wing whacko to Moderate.

Abortion should only be legal in the cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in serious jeopardy.

Conservative to Right-wing whacko.

Abortion should be legal under all circumstances.

Left-wing whacko to Liberal.

Gay marriage should be legal.

Two ways of seeing it:

- under the current left wing/right wing dichotomy: Left-wing whacko to conservative.
- with the assumption that right wing implies limited government and increased personal freedom: across the board from Left-wing whacko to Right-wing whacko.

We did the right thing to envade Iraq.

Conservative to Right-wing whacko.

The bail out was the right thing to do.

All and none.

In terms of it propping up a capitalist system, it fails for the left wing. In terms of government interference in the free market, it fails for the right wing.

I think it can be accepted as pragmatic compromise equally well (or equally poorly, depending on your point of view) in all viewpoints.

Sometimes it's necessary to make pre-emptive strikes against nations that have threatened us, but not attacked us.

Again, a two-part answer:

- under the current left wing/right wing dichotomy, Conservative to right-wing whacko.
- under the traditional "right wing means limited government and limited involvement in foreign wars", none.

Those who make more than $500k per year should pay a significantly higher percentage of income tax than those who make $50k per year.

Everything but right-wing whacko.

The minimun wage should be raised every year according to a cost of living index.

Everything but right-wing whacko (though I think that 3-year intervals, say between increases would fit just as well).

Communism is evil.

Conservative to right-wing whacko.

Socialism would be a good change for the USA.

Left-wing whacko to liberal.

 

[pwsoldier]

Subscribed. I'll reply tomorrow when I'm sober.

 

[Mister Emu]

Which group do you belong to (1-10)?

9 or 10

Which group do each of the following belong to?

Obama - 4/5
McCain - 5/6
Hillary - 3-5
GW - Umm... I guess... 5/6
Bill Clinton - 4/5
Ronald Reagan - 7/8
Michael Moore - 1/2
Sean Hannity - 8/9
Ann Coulter - 8/9

Who are you voting for President?

Probabaly McCain, but I'm afraid if I do I'll get stuck in the "vote against the guy you don't want most" mentality as opposed to voting for who I really want to win...

If you're not voting for McCain or Obama, to which group does your candidate belong?

If I don't it would be for the Constitution Party candidate...

Which group(s) would you label as radical left?

1-2

Which group(s) would you label as liberal, but not radical?

3-4

Which group(s) would you label as moderate?

4-5-6

Which group(s) would you label as radical right?

9-10

Which group(s) would you label as conservative, but not radical?

7-8

Which groups do you think are most likely to vote?

1, 2, 9, and 10... going down from there...

Please identify each of the following positions as left-wing-whacko, liberal, moderate, conservative, or right-wing-whacko:

We need a health care system similar to that of Canada.

Far Left(I am opposed to calling anyone whacko merely because of their positions, alot of it has to do with the mentality they take towards the ideas as well) to Liberal

Abortion should only be legal in the cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in serious jeopardy.

Conservative to Far Right

Abortion should be legal under all circumstances.

Far Left

Gay marriage should be legal.

Far Left to Liberal to Moderate

We did the right thing to envade Iraq.

By "right thing" I am assuming you mean morally as opposed to good for our country... with that I would say from Liberal to Far Right...

The bail out was the right thing to do.

Far Left to Far Right

Sometimes it's necessary to make pre-emptive strikes against nations that have threatened us, but not attacked us.

Moderate to Far Right

Those who make more than $500k per year should pay a significantly higher percentage of income tax than those who make $50k per year.

Moderate to Far Right...

The minimun wage should be raised every year according to a cost of living index.

Every year is a bit much, but I would say Far Left to Conservative(and some Far Right people) would agree that it should regularly be raised...

Communism is evil.

Liberal to Far Right

Socialism would be a good change for the USA.

Far Left to Liberal

 

[Scott C.]

3 or so, maybe?

So you see yourself as being right in the middle of the left half of the USA.

Obama - 4 to 5

It's interstesing that you see Obama as more to the right than where you are and you see him about the same as Bill Clinton. I hope you're right, but from everything I learn about Obama, he's a 3 or more left than that.

You say that 3, 4, and 5 are moderate, yet they are all left of center, as I define center in this analysis. You include yourself, as a 3, as moderate. Since you're apparently not from the US, I assume you measure moderate relative to a center point other than what we have in the US. You also don't include anyone, who is slightly right of center, as moderate. Why is that?

 

[herushura]

i am not American so i am not brainwashed by them stupid president Campaigns.
I take my Vitamins to keep the free radicals at ease

 

[Scott C.]

9 or 10

You identify yourself as being among the most conservative 10-20% of the population and more conservative than Reagan, Hannity, and Coulter. That's pretty darn conservative. Do you care to elaborate on what views you hold that are more right than Reagan, Hannity, and Coulter?

Obama - 4/5

From the two responses so far, we have a group 3 member who identifies Obama as a 4/5 and a group 9/10 member who also identifies him as a 4/5. That's encouraging to me and I hope you're both right. The conservative media paints Obama to be a 2/3 IMO. If he's the same as Bill Clinton, maybe Obama won't ruin the country. I prefer someone to the right of center, however.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

So you see yourself as being right in the middle of the left half of the USA.

Yep.

It's interstesing that you see Obama as more to the right than where you are and you see him about the same as Bill Clinton. I hope you're right, but from everything I learn about Obama, he's a 3 or more left than that.

If Obama's a 3, then that would probably make me a 2. :cover:

You say that 3, 4, and 5 are moderate, yet they are all left of center, as I define center in this analysis. You include yourself, as a 3, as moderate. Since you're apparently not from the US, I assume you measure moderate relative to a center point other than what we have in the US.

Because I think that the normal range of American politics is only a portion of the range of both all possible political viewpoints and the range of political views that exist in the world. If you look at the spread from Democrat to Republican, or, if you want to expand things a bit, the spread from Green to Republican, I think the American political midpoint is solidly on the right side of both the theoretical midpoint and the practical global one.

Personally, I think that in America today, a "5" is fairly right-wing. At the height of Communist China under Mao, I would have said that their "5" would have been radically left-wing. The fact that the majority in a particular country holds a certain view doesn't make it moderate.

You also don't include anyone, who is slightly right of center, as moderate. Why is that?

Because I think what passes for "center" in the United States is about as far right as one can go and still be considered moderate.

The graph at Political Compass probably explains things better than I could: US Presidential Election 2008

As a point of comparison, have a look at this thread I started:

Quiz - which Canadian political party most closely matches your views?

I realize that some of the issues brought up in the quiz might be unfamiliar to an American, but I'd be interested to see how you do.

When you look at your results, it might be good to keep in mind that at the Federal level, the Canadian political spectrum works out pretty much like this:

- Conservative: right to center-right
- Liberal: center
- NDP: left
- Bloc Quebecois: left to center-left (but also focussed on separating the province of Quebec from the rest of Canada, which kinda puts them in their own category politically)
- Green: a mix of right-to-left views depending on policy, but generally center-left

 

[Mister Emu]

Do you care to elaborate on what views you hold that are more right than Reagan, Hannity, and Coulter?

Hannity and Coulter support Bush, therefore they are not conservative Reagan was pretty conservative, but he was also majorly involved in the internal goings on of several nations...

If he's the same as Bill Clinton, maybe Obama won't ruin the country. I prefer someone to the right of center, however.

He isn't the same as Clinton, even though I would say he is in the same range...