Interesting graph at politicalcompass.com

[Caution]

the blurb from the site regarding this:
Within the United States , of course, real (and imagined) differences between the candidates are more greatly magnified. However, compared to other western democracies, especially those with a finely-tuned system of proportional representation, most mainstream political activity in the US is concentrated over a more narrow ideological range. We note too that conservative Democrats tend to have more in common with Republicans than with the liberals within their own ranks.

I know a link to this test has been entered before but here it is again:

http://www.politicalcompass.org
Take the test for yourself.

I scored:

Economic Left/Right: -8.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -9.08

[Renew Deal]

1. Authoritarian + Right= Fascist.

This is more proof that Bush is a fascist.

[Journeyman]

3. Interesting. . .

and John Edwards is only slightly less fascist than George Bush, but more so than Joe Lieberman.

Ah, labels. . . useful for soups and assorted vegetables, more problematic with people. . .

[blm]

6. No...that's Bob Graham' s dot

.

[Journeyman]

22. I think Bob Graham's "dot". . .

would be next to Bob Graham's name. . .which places it just above and to the right of Richard Gephardt. The dot closest to George W. Bush on this chart is John Edwards' dot, followed just slightly below and to the left by Joe Liebermans. But again, to reiterate my initial point, such easy classifications of anyone invariably raise more questions than they convey answers.

[Renew Deal]

13. Bush is most Authoritarian and most right.

[blm]

2. I fall right between Kucinich and Kerry...

No surprise they are my two favorite candidates.

[msmcghee]

4. What are the scale ranges for the graph?

You posted your scores. Were those on a scale of +/- 10.0?

[Caution]

5. yes n/t

[msmcghee]

7. Good score! n/t

[Mattforclark]

8. Your political compass

Economic Left/Right: -3.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.54

[Bandit]

9. I doubt that any of those people actually took the test

It is just someone's idea of where they stand. I am as far to the left as the scale goes.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. I'm dying for these folks to plot out our major pundits

That would be very intersting to see how they all fall on the graph.

[lakercub]

11. Down past Al

I'd taken this test before, and I was more socially Libertarian than they have Sharpton.

[newyawker99]

23. Hi lakercub!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[GregW]

12. L/R: -4.12 ... A/L: -3.38 ... similar to DK

Had me surprised!

[sangh0]

14. That graph is propoganda for libertarianism

The opposite of authoritarian is NOT libertarian

[Caution]

16. ummm actually this graph has nothing to do with the libertarian party

nor is it sponsored or hosted by them. Next time follow the link.

The American Libertarian party would fall in the bottom right quadrant of this graph.

To the left Libertarianism keeps government out of the affairs of the individual To the right keeps government out of the affairs of business. This is actually pretty straightforward.

This site isn't an american site and in fact they address this question in the FAQ

You can't be libertarian and left wing

This is almost exclusively an American response, overlooking the undoubtedly libertarian tradition of European anarcho-syndicalism. It was, after all, the important French anarchist thinker Proudhon who declared that property is theft.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the likes of Emma Goldman were identified as libertarians long before the term was adopted by some economic rightwingers. And what about the libertarian collectives of the mid-late 1800s and 1960s?

Americans like Noam Chomsky can claim the label 'libertarian socialist' with the same validity that Milton Friedman can be considered a 'libertarian capitalist'.

The assumption that Social Darwinism delivers more social freedom is questionable. The welfare states of, for example, Sweden and The Netherlands, abolished capital punishment decades ago and are at the forefront of progressive legislation for women, gays and ethnic minorities - not to mention anti-censorship. Such developments would presumably be envied by genuine libertarians in socially conservative countries - even if their taxes are lower.

Interestingly, many economic libertarians express to us their support for or indifference towards capital punishment; yet the execution of certain citizens is a far stronger assertion of state power than taxation.

N.B. The death penalty is practised in all seriously authoritarian states. In Eastern Europe it was abolished with the fall of communism and adoption of democracy. The United States is the only western democracy where capital punishment is still practised.

[sangh0]

18. So what?

I didn't say that it had something to do with The Libertarian Party. I said it was libertarian propoganda. There's a difference

[Caution]

19. exactly how is it libertarian propganda

I'd really love to hear your explanation on this one? you state that liberarianism is not the opposite of authoritarianism...please back up this precept? Is this just semantics?

The site itself seems pretty neutral here.

[sangh0]

20. Libertarianism is not the opposite of authoritarianism

even though the libertarians would like you to think that it is. ALso, Sharpton is NOT libertarian. Sharpton has no problem using the govt to force integration, etc, positions which put him in opposition to libertarianism. Also, the site does not identify who they are. Atleast, if they did, it was not clear. This is not the work of an academic. It's the work of a propogandist

[Caution]

21. actually you are making the assumption that libertarianism

in all forms opposes any form of government regulation. That is the position of the libertarian party but not the definition used by this site as stated quite clearly by its maintainers.

Also from the FAQ:

Why did you do this? What's in it for you?

As we explained in our introduction, it's a case of a journalist and an academic working on the inadequacies of simple left-right political identies.

We have no ideological or institutional baggage. The satisfaction has been in generating media discussion, and receiving thoughtful comments and so much enthusiasm from web visitors.

[Selwynn]

15. This just goes to prove the point I KEEP MAKING

In this country we don't have "righ" "middle" and "left" politics. We have FAR EXTREME FAASCIST RIGHT (neo-cons), the FAR RIGHT (so called moderates) and the RIGHT (Democrats.)

PS - I score left of the Dali Lama :)

[DaveSZ]

17. Exactly

We have fascists, far righties like Joe Liebershit and Edwards, and center right people like Kerry. Kerry has a very liberal record though, so I'm pretty happy with him.

According to political compass, Kerry is to the left of Paul Martin of Canada.

If we could take back Congress with more people like Kucinich, we could get some things done.

[Massacure]

24. Economic Left/Right: -4.38, Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.26

I saw the political compass on another website, and took the test about three months ago. I went back and looked up the results.
Economic Left/Right: -3.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.59
Looks like my opinions have changed the past few months. :p