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political compass

2007-09-13 14:02:47.895075+00 by Dan Lyke 6 comments

US Primaries 2007: Which right wing authoritarians will face off in 2008? (thanks, Medley).

It is important to recognise that The Political Compass™ is a continuum rather than consisting of hard and fast quadrants. For example, Ron Paul on the social scale is actually closer to Dennis Kucinich than to many figures within his own party. But on the economic scale, they are, of course, far apart.

[ related topics: Politics moron Economics ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2007-09-15 03:06:53.455054+00 by: TheSHAD0W

What the hell...?

That really hit me, because that's not where I would've placed Ron Paul at all. Then I dug a bit deeper... Check out the questions asked for the test. Especially question #1...

Quoting a friend: [21:38] Rudy: What the fuck sort of communist crap is that? [21:39] Rudy: "If I have to be eye fucked, do I want it in the left or right eye?"

#Comment Re: made: 2007-09-15 04:46:27.399211+00 by: crasch

Yeah, that test is loaded with false dichotomies.

#Comment Re: made: 2007-09-15 13:38:57.816258+00 by: TheSHAD0W

They've taken the Nolan chart and skewed it towards their own purposes. Try the real one at theadvocates.org.

#Comment Re: made: 2007-09-15 15:33:33.881876+00 by: Dan Lyke

Yeah, the questions were loaded, but as I read more and more libertarian analyses of Ron Paul, that's roughly where I'd put him.

#Comment Re: made: 2007-09-15 19:10:47.598671+00 by: TheSHAD0W

I suppose that depends on your definition of "libertarian". Looking at Gravel's and Kucinich's records, my opinion is that they are IN NO WAY more libertarian than Ron Paul.

#Comment Re: made: 2007-09-16 20:04:14.955505+00 by: Dan Lyke

Okay, having looked at that web page again, I now agree that it's total bullshit, the Authoritarian versus Libertarian being orthogonal to Right versus Left should have been my first clue.

However, on Ron Paul as a libertarian: I'm not gonna dig into this too deeply, but read his rant against Lawrence v. Texas. The guy clearly cares naught for individual liberties. He may vote against taxes sometimes, although he still seems to do a pretty good job at voting for PORC and his own pet education projects, but he's a "states righter", more even than a strict constitutionalist. The further I dig, the further I believe that he's an evangelical right wing Christian who thinks his agendas are best served by hobbling the federal government when it gets in the way of more local theocracies.

So, yeah, it's not hard to show up as more libertarian than Ron Paul, just vote for personal freedoms a few times. Elect Ron Paul and we'll be fighting Griswold v. Connecticut[Wiki] again.