crispini's journal - A few thoughts on left, right, and center.

There's been an awful lot of tossing around of these terms on DU lately. I think these terms are worthy of some discussion in and of themselves. I'd like to point DU'ers to the wonderful website, The Political Compass, which recommends a rethinking of the whole left-right spectrum, which they posit as strictly "economic" in nature, and they add an additional "up and down" axis of a more "social" nature, which is Libertarian - Authoritarian. From the website:

On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? It's not sufficient to say that Stalin was simply more left than Gandhi. There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categories on their own can't explain. Similarly, we generally describe social reactionaries as 'right-wingers', yet that leaves left-wing reactionaries like Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot off the hook.

That's about as much as we should tell you for now. After you've responded to the following propositions during the next 3-5 minutes, all will be explained. In each instance, you're asked to choose the response that best describes your feeling: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree or Strongly Agree. At the end of the test, you'll be given the compass, with your own special position on it.

http://www.politicalcompass.org/index

I'd like to encourage all of you to take the test -- you'll find the results very informative. I'd also like to direct your attention to the page for the US Presidential Election 2008, which notes:

When examining the chart it's important to note that although most of the candidates seem quite different, in substance they occupy a relatively restricted area within the universal political spectrum. Democracies with a system of proportional representation give expression to a wider range of political views. While Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader are depicted on the extreme left in an American context, they would simply be mainstream social democrats within the wider political landscape of Europe. Similarly, Obama is popularly perceived as a leftist in the United States while elsewhere in the west his record is that of a moderate conservative. (more at link)

http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection...

Here are the charts from the Presidential Election on that page (general and primary):

And, for reference, here is my personal chart:

When I first took the test, my results certainly surprised me, and it also surprised the friends I encouraged to take it. I'd like to encourage each of you to take the test yourselves, and post your chart here, or just post the numbers that it gives you if that's too much work. I couldn't find any easy way to post my chart, so I just took a screenshot and uploaded it to my photobucket.

I hope this is food for thought and discussion!