Poll - Your Political Alignment

[magister343]

I'm an INTP with highly idiosyncratic political views, but they generally align closest to Geo-Libertarianism.

In the last election I voted for Mike Huckabee in the Republican primary. I don't agree with him on everything and am really a bit closer to Ron Paul (or maybe even Mike Gravel), but Huckabee was was the best candidate with any chance of actually winning my state. I went for Bob Barr in the general election, because even though in some ways I liked him less than either major candidate I could not support anyone who supported TARP. (He was the only candidate from a minor party who made the ballot in my state. I knew that Georgia does not count write in votes except for candidates who have gotten enough names on a petition to register with the secretary of state, but which it turns out that 4 other candidates for the office had but I did nt realize this until later. I went ahead and did write-ins for most positions on the ballot though, including every office where someone was running unopposed. I voted my CPA dad as tax commissioner, my lawyer half-brother as solicitor general, my sister to the school board, etc.)

I strong oppose the concept of political parties on principle. Our system of plurality voting is a sham. We need to move to a system that does not require one to chose the lesser of two evils, but rather allows us to express just how evil we think each candidate is. I used to support Fractional Ballots, but lately I've moved to prefering Range Voting.

(Mock ballot studies have shown that in range voting, assuming the candidates and parties somehow did not change, the Democrats would have easily won every presidential election in over 30 years. The Democrats would also typically have a small majority in congress, with the Libertarian party being the second largest and the Green party more successful then the Republican Party. This is probably because Republicans have so often used polarizing tactics, demonizing those that they know wouldn't vote for them anyway to get those that would riled up. In range voting it is generally more important to make sure that very few voters hate you than that a plurality love you. The move to range voting would force political discussions to become far more civil.)


I am also strongly of the opinion that no one should ever be given citizenship automatically by happenstance of birth. I find both jus sangunis and jus solis to be repugnant. Citizenship should not involve some nebulous social contract, but an actually written contract that can be signed only with informed consent. I want open borders and a uniform path to citizen for everyone, where those born here or abroad have an equal duty to pass the tests determining whether or not they can consent to citizenship. I'd likely make these tests quite difficult, as the state would have a duty to provide public education only up to the levels it requires for the citizenship tests.

 

[arbygil]

I've been pretty been much all across the board politically. I began as a Democrat, then called myself Conservative, then "compassionate" Conservative, then Libertarian, and now I'm pretty much a Social Libertarian/Liberal Socialist...maybe a cross between a Liberal and a Libertarian. Fiscally I believe in paying for social programs and health care, and I believe government should provide that need when feasible. But I also believe in the rights of others to "live free."

My political compass:

Economic Left/Right: -5.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.72

http://www.politicalcompass.org/test

 

[DefectiveCreative]

I usually fall into the Paleo-Liberal bracket these days, which is basically slap-bang between Liberal and Libertarian. So...I have no idea which poll option to vote for; Liberal, Libertarian or Other. =P

 

[invisible]

i think of myself as a social democrat so i put moderate.

 

[invisible]

zero infj conservatives thus far, haha.

 

[aeon]

I tend to prefer Classical Liberalism, so I checked "Non INFJ - Libertarian."


cheers,
Ian

 

[Barnabas]

Conservative independent, who evers best fit to get te Job done should probably be given the job.

 

[NaeturVindur]

As far as economics are concerned, I'm a centrist. The economy, due to its huge scale, needs a little watching, and the gov't does need some money from its people to run. However, I'm not at all socialist in this. Beyond economists, I'm a libretarian (and disappointed that I can't call myself a libretaian without people people assuming I'm a hard core Capitalist.)

 

[IndigoSensor]

They say as you get older you become more conserivitive and I am finding this to be true.

 

[TheLastMohican]

They say as you get older you become more conserivitive and I am finding this to be true.

I don't think they mean anything like your age when they say that. From most of the tracking polls I've seen, people get more liberal while in college (those conservative as adolescents being newly exposed to liberal philosophies, which tend to dominate in academia), and then get more conservative again when approaching middle age. Of course when we're sampling from different age groups of the current population, we are seeing some of the changes from the shifting moral zeitgeist, which goes a long way in a human lifespan. So that would throw off measurements of how individuals are actually changing.

 

[IndigoSensor]

I don't think they mean anything like your age when they say that. From most of the tracking polls I've seen, people get more liberal while in college (those conservative as adolescents being newly exposed to liberal philosophies, which tend to dominate in academia), and then get more conservative again when approaching middle age. Of course when we're sampling from different age groups of the current population, we are seeing some of the changes from the shifting moral zeitgeist, which goes a long way in a human lifespan. So that would throw off measurements of how individuals are actually changing.

It seems like most people I interact with have and do become more liberal once in college. In a place like montana where my school is almost half out of staters, it is common. Yet I find myself becoming more conservitive, in both senses (more so in an economic way though). I still have a lot of the same views, but its a shift i've noticed. I mean, I still call myself a liberal (just an atypical one). And yes you are right it does typically apply to people in their forties or so. You know, now that I think about it. I might be the only person I know who has become slightly more conservitive. Either people have become more liberal or remained the same from what I have seen.

 

[Kavalan]

It seems like most people I interact with have and do become more liberal once in college. In a place like montana where my school is almost half out of staters, it is common. Yet I find myself becoming more conservitive, in both senses (more so in an economic way though). I still have a lot of the same views, but its a shift i've noticed. I mean, I still call myself a liberal (just an atypical one). And yes you are right it does typically apply to people in their forties or so. You know, now that I think about it. I might be the only person I know who has become slightly more conservitive. Either people have become more liberal or remained the same from what I have seen.

This addage of older equals more conservative is more dependent on where one starts in life and how life is to them. It's all situational to a degree.

I see myself going more liberal in my moderate views as the conservative reasoning becomes more and more disingenuous and overly harsh to those whom now stand where the ancestors of many of these "Americans" stood in their time. Because of this business has become suspect and slightly(I have issues here it's an odd balancing act) favor the power of the ballot. One's worldview and general philosophy of life will also influence it(alltruism + trust everyone but tie your camels up at night).

For those who cannot understand my rambling simply stated that ones perception is more complex than just a matter of aging.

Also what is conservative now at another time could/would be considered liberal in the past.

 

[Flavus Aquila]

Socially conservative; economically liberal.

I wasn't always socially conservative until I noticed that social liberals are almost always trying to destroy something and are more likely than not to be angry and vengeful as a group. I have also noticed that people who lead a "liberal lifestyle" usually have a much more unstable home environment... So I couldn't continue to support social liberalism. It destroys people's security.

In every other respect I am liberal.

 

[Poetic Justice]

I don't know what the options mean so I can't say

 

[TheLastMohican]

I wasn't always socially conservative until I noticed that social liberals are almost always trying to destroy something and are more likely than not to be angry and vengeful as a group. I have also noticed that people who lead a "liberal lifestyle" usually have a much more unstable home environment... So I couldn't continue to support social liberalism. It destroys people's security.

Personally, I don't appreciate the oppressive "security" of social conservatism, nor do I see destructiveness, anger, vengefulness and unstable homes as hallmarks of social liberalism. Where, exactly, did you get such impressions?

 

[testing]

I'd always thought I was more socially liberal, economically conservative, but do not like being labeled.

Am wondering what exactly people mean by socially liberal? Personally, I define it as something along the lines of "What goes on between consenting adults is none of my business", and basically not forcing people to live by social rules and/or lifestyles that may not be suitable for them, and which at the same time do not negatively impact others.

It seems that sometimes people define "Socially Liberal" as "Sleeps Around, Cheats, and Appears on the Maury Povitch Show where they Take Paternity Tests"? Maybe? (dunno...)

If that was your definition then yes, I can see where that might lead to unstable homes and destructiveness, but I am not sure that is what people mean when they say Socially Liberal. (????)

 

[TheLastMohican]

Am wondering what exactly people mean by socially liberal? Personally, I define it as something along the lines of "What goes on between consenting adults is none of my business", and basically not forcing people to live by social rules and/or lifestyles that may not be suitable for them, and which at the same time do not negatively impact others.

In this context, when we contrast our social and economic views, "socially liberal" means "socially permissive," and something like what is properly called classical liberalism (which is often referred to as libertarianism, though we are only talking about the social side of that philosophy, not the economic/fiscal side). There actually is an ideology called social liberalism, but that includes economic measures, like social security. It refers to post-WWII reforms like those Roosevelt instituted.

Btw, I would call myself a moderate classical liberal, which basically means I'm socially permissive and economically conservative. In that political matrix test, I came up as "economically moderately capitalist" and "socially far-leftist."

 

[Satya]

Personally, I don't appreciate the oppressive "security" of social conservatism, nor do I see destructiveness, anger, vengefulness and unstable homes as hallmarks of social liberalism. Where, exactly, did you get such impressions?

An interesting study on the "security" of social conservativism...
[FONT=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]
A recent study by the Barna Research Group throws extreme doubt on the assumption that socially conservative home's are more stable.

http://www.adherents.com/largecom/baptist_divorce.html

Barna released the results of their poll about divorce on 1999-DEC-21.They had interviewed 3,854 adults from the 48 contiguous states. The margin of error is

 

[invisible]

ha, ha.

 

[Satya]

ha, ha.

I dunno why, I just find it ironic that Agnostics and Atheists have the same divorce rate as Catholics. Purely from a data perspective.

Of course...I'm assuming that "social conservatism" translates to faith base.