Remember Political Compass? I do. Waaaay back in ’03, some friends of mine and I took the test and gauged our political compasses. Having recently been fingered as a Mike Gravel supporter by GlassBooth, I figured I’d get my compass read again, and here’s how it went:
2008 Economic Left/Right: -3.50
2008 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.59
2003 Economic Left/Right: -3.50
2003 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.00
So, I’m a little tiny bit more authoritarian, but overall unchanged in those five formative years. This was all foretold, by the way – I was told by a co-worker a few years ago this would happen as I grew older. (Me: I’m a pretty liberal Democrat. Her: Oh, you’ll grow out of that.) Does the AARP make you change your voter registration or something?
Back to my Political Compass reading: I’m in pretty good company there, just a bit less Left and a bit less Libertarian than his Holiness the Dalai Lama and polar opposites from Margaret Thatcher and Adolf Hitler. Now, as far as my “Mike Gravel” reading from GlassBooth is concerned, the Political Compass has him near the same Libertarian level as me, but he’s much more to the Right than I am. My real Political Compass soulmate? Ralph Nader. (Who was only 4% shy of a GlassBooth match). Interesting reading: Political Compass’ readings on the 2008 US Presidential Primaries.
I suspect my real leftist leanings that throw me into the same bucket as Nader are that I think gays, children, the elderly and the infirm have a right to be happy inasmuch as my white, male, upper(?)-middle-class self does. Next thing ya know I’ll be on a kibbutz smashing beets into biofuel with a red scarf around my neck as my strapping wife tows a cartful of bounty off into the sunset.
Er… wait. Well, anyway, it’s not much of a surprise to me – I think my leanings (in whichever direction) solidified sometime around my mid-20s and I’m glad to see they haven’t changed to much from where my 25 year-old (my age in 2003) self saw them. Refined, maybe, but not a major shift.
Thanks to M@ Rasnake for digging up my 2003 email with my Political Compass stats in it. I’m afraid to say my email pre-2003 has vanished like so many Nader-as-president dreams.