I was introduced today to a site called Political Compass, and in the process of taking the test there I went from thinking the site was a joke to realizing the great amount of work that went into it. Certainly it is more functional than pretty, but I do not think their research is trivial.
The basic premise of the site is that the Right vs. Left political ruler is not sufficient to accurately portray differences in candidates. That's been said before, but this site goes a couple of steps further by positing that the Left/Right axis should be an economic one and that a vertical axis, based on social issues, be added. It further made a test for you to take that would place your position on that grid among some famous others (Stalin, Hitler, Gandhi, Thatcher, Friedman, etc).
Now that's cool and all, but I wouldn't have bothered putting a diary (first dairy!) on Daily Kos for that. Unfortunately my paragraph on why exceeded the size of an intro block, so you'll just have to jump over the fold for that, doh!
Also over the fold is my thoughts on their comparisons, my ratings, and a poll.
Why I'm making the diary is to point out that their researchers have isolated various election periods: The US 2008 election, the 2004 election, the UK elections from a few years, Canadian elections, etc. These election have most or all of the major participants plotted on their map along with, in the UK at least, the movement of the political parties over time. The positions of the candidates on the grid, especially compared to my own position, as well as the thought provoking nature of the test itself made this site worth a diary in my mind.
I was amazed to se that my position on the graph (-4, -2.41) put me much closer to the Green Party than the Democratic one this cycle. And looking at the different elections in different countries was a real eye opener too because the primary united states election (Repubs vs Dems) seemed to encompass a relatively small section of the political map, and it was a section that I personally wasn't in. It really made me wonder if I should adjust my view of the political system here to see if the nation (or possibly the constitution itself) hammered out a particular political spectrum and we libruls were just outside of it, or if there were simply that many more people in this country in the 1,1 to 9,9 range than there were in any combination of the negative ranges.
I encourage all of you to help me out, and learn a thing or two about yourself and this community, by going to take the test and report your ratings in the comments here. I'd really like to know! It's like the political equivalent of a googlemap group, I guess. If enough people post I'll make a second diary with them all plotted.
Thanks!
Oh, and a poll! Everyone wants a poll! It's about the compass test, so go take it before you respond.
Fri Dec 16, 2011 at 1:01 PM PT: It's been just over 3 years since I posted this diary, and I see keeping company with all ye commies has brought be just slightly further left and considerably further down, to -4.3, -4.1.