Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The Problem With Political ID Quizzes

I just stumbled on another political quiz. My score was 93.7% personal, and 87.6% economic. According to the quiz, I'm a "Radical Libertarian." Anyone who has read my blog for any length of time knows I'm not actually a libertarian -- let alone a radical libertarian -- although I do hold some fairly radical libertarian positions on domestic issues. The problem with most of these political identification quizzes is that they ignore or undervalue foreign policy, and issues involving nationalism/exceptionalism

2 comments:

  1. I prefer to look at foreign policy on a different scale like the Millman chart.

    I'm about a 66-33 Hamiltonian-Jeffersonian blend (Think of Daniel Larison and Stephen Walt meeting with Ron Paul as a bridge)

    The American Right over the past decade has been predominantly Wilsonian-Jacksonian, i.e. idealistcally militaristic... neoconservative hawks, in short.

    Bush Sr. and Colin Powell are two of the last Republican polls with a strong Hamiltonian streak.

    The demise of foreign policy realism on the right during GWB's tenure before the too-little-too-late course correction under Bob Gates explains a lot about our politics today and foreseeable future.

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  2. That's an interesting chart. I would have to say I'm a mix of Jacksonian & Hamiltonian. But I know I have a fairly weird blend of foreign & domestic policy views.

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