on which side of the aisle do you sit?

[Peguy]

Originally Posted by Little Linguist

Think: political diamond rather than political spectrum.

That's a good way to think about it. Personally I prefer the comparison to a sphere and a line. The standard political understanding is that of the line: you're either on one end or the other.

With the spherical perspective: even if you're on the right side of one hemisphere, you still have more in common with the Left side of your hemisphere then you do with the right side of the other hemisphere.

That probably explains why that even though I'm a Ron Paul supporter, I still have more in common with Ralph Nader than I do with Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly.


Concerning the definition of Left and Right: It originated from the time of the French Revolution, and various factions sat in the National Assembly. Those we would consider "conservatives" tended to sit together on the right side of the assembly, while the "liberals" and radicals sat more towards the left side. Hence how the terms were coined.

[Peguy]

Originally Posted by Orangey

The Political Compass - Test

I think this one is better:
What's your Political Philosophy?

[Falcarius]

Fiscally: I am probably the most left wing member of this forum, and I doubt too many will disagree.

Socially: It is hard to say if I am a righty or lefty or whatever. On one hand, I oppose divorce except for infidelity and extreme violence, same-sex marriage, abortion, euthanasia, drugs, and embryonic stem cell research.

While on the other hand, I don't like telling people what to do so I would not necessarily make the above things illegal if say I was head of state; Does this make me a social conservative in denial?

Originally Posted by Peguy

Hmmmn....interesting question. Long story short: my political views are unclassifable as far as the standard spectrum is concerned - even though many here like to automatically assume I'm on the right(you know who you are!

The Anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon once proclaimed himself as "the most revolutionary person of his time, but also as the most conservative".

That's probably the best way to describe where I stand on the political spectrum. Like Proudhon, I too rail against excessive state power, yet defend the family and traditional morality. Believe it or not, there was a time when the Left was socially conservative.

Not only do I criticise Big government, I also criticise Big business as well - two sides of the same coin as far as I'm concerned. I'm strongly believe in the concept of self-government.

I'm a staunch defender of the virtue of patriotism, as well as the legitimacy of parochial identities(local, ethnic, regional, national, etc.) in the face of abstract Globalism - which I guess places me on the Right.

Yet I also staunchly believe in the virtue of social justice and standing up for the underdog, which would place me very much on the Left.

I could go on endlessly about this. As I said, my politics are hard to fully classify.

Concerning mainstream politics, Im a Ron Paul supporter.

If George Orwell was here he would call you a 'Tory Anarchist', like he used to refer to himself before he became a socialist.

[Colors]

Social: Left-__SJ-SP--NT-NF___________________________-Right
(With "left"=0, "neutral=0.5", "right=1")
(average: SJ=0.1667, SP=0.2083, NT=0.2800, NF=0.3235)

Fiscal: Left-____________NF___SJ-NT_____SP____________-Right
(average: NF=0.3235, NT=0.5385, SJ=0.5000, SP=0.7083)

[Risen]

I think of the political spectrum as a circle. At the top of the circle we have the middle, the majority of Americans, the state between anarchist and tyrannical forms of government (though that is best represented as a line that sits as a tangent to the "center" point of the political circle) . Then you gown down the left and right halves of the circle until you get to the bottom where they meet again. The most extreme forms of the right and the left eventually become very similar if you look at it from the perspective of how politics behaves today (not so much in the core definitions, where they really don't meet up in a circle, but remain more diametrically opposed in a linear fashion).

[speculative]

Originally Posted by heart

I don't even know how to answer this anymore, politics is so crazy now.

I agree. I answered this in relation to the political climate from the Reagan era. Anything after that is pretty messed up...

[Lateralus]

I voted for the only thing I can be sure of.