The Political Compass

For years I have found myself lost in the Democrat vs. Republican arena. While my personal views most often coincide with the viewpoints of the Republicans, I find that my political opinions are more similar to the Democrats. As a result, I am registered for neither party, and I must sit by as the rest of the country determines which candidates will officially run for President.

I have long been frustrated by not "belonging" to a party. I mean, it seems like pretty much everyone knows where they stand, except me. The problem, though, isn't really that I don't know where I stand. It is simply that there are very few individuals standing in my same location.

Well, today I made a little progress toward understanding why. There is this cool website (http://www.politicalcompass.org/) that has you answer a bunch of questions, and it pus you in a quadrant based on your answers. You can favor the economic left or right, and you can favor the social libertarian or authoritarian perspectives. It turns out that most of the strong political leaders for the upcoming Presidential elections fall into the "Right/Authoritarian" quadrant, while I reside in "Left/Libertarian."

I guess that at least helps explain why I never truly agree with any politician or party. Apparently my views are just too... weird. I dunno. Fortunately, with all that Kirk and I disagree on (and trust me, that's a lot) we're pretty similar in the political quadrant. I guess that's why we get along so well.

The first graph is mine, the second is Kirk's.

Do the test, and let me know where you stand!