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For all the screaming about left vs. right in this country, you’d think that the current crop of Democrats were rubbing elbows with Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin, but the reality is that our entire political spectrum in the United States is shifted very strongly to the right, with only a few outliers on either end of the continuum.
You should remember the Political Compass website. There probably isn’t a blogger in the world who didn’t take the test and plot their coordinates at one time or another since this first showed up five or six years ago. My blog-buddy Jack Cluth even proudly displays his coordinates right on the front page of his blog. (Hey, Jack, BTW, the link you have with those coordinates is deader than a doornail) It fades in and out of our collective attention as the political situation changes.
Well, it’s back with an analysis of the various candidates presently running for President, and, as you can see in that graphic, all but two (Kucinich and Gravel) are tightly bunched together in the upper-right quadrant. Oh sure, Hillary and Obama plot a bit closer to center than, say, Newt Gingrich, but ain’t nuthin’ leftist about a one of them. And that should really come as no surprise if you have any sense of historical context of American politics. We are now and always have been a fundamentally conservative country. It’s just the loudness of the far right that has caused us to latch on to the idea that there’s any significant “left wing” in our politics.
Just for comparison’s sake, I took the test just now. It’s probably been a couple of years since the last time I took it. I have plotted myself on the graph for you, and, as you can see, I’m the Serious Threat To America, what with my radical notions of personal liberty and social welfare and all. Actually, I was a little surprised to see how much further south on the Libertarian axis I have moved since the last time I took this. Left-wise, I am still about the same, but I guess my outrage at the civil rights abuses of the Bushies has pushed me a little more toward the personal liberty issue than in the past.
I’m not quite as far left and south as you, but I’m close.
Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.59
My responses place me pretty much smack in the middle of the green (Libertarian Left) square. So, where is one to turn?
Sorry, that’s -5.00 economic left/right and -4.26 social libertarian/authoritarian.
You’ve moved a bit as well, if I recall correctly, Tony. I seem to remember that you were closer to the center of the axes when we did this a few years ago.
I wonder if we’ve moved or whether the scoring algorithm has changed… I’m definitely feeling more left of center these days, though.
Yes, I do think there’s a bit of a case of “shifting goalposts” to be leveled at the people who run the Political Compass site.
But I also believe that the last several years, since the start of the Iraq War really, have really pushed people to reconsider their political beliefs.
It’s really very disappointing to see that the differences between, say, John Edwards (who frames himself as a populist) and John McCain, are so compressed.
Well, I agree with that. Honestly, it’s a bit disconcerting (not to mention disheartening) to find myself so relatively out of step. That said, it would be interesting to see a national average though, given our current crop of presidential candidates I can’ t but imagine that it’s somewhere in the middle of the pack there.
Well, my friend, 2012 is coming.