Sunday, November 04, 2007
Are You Liberal or Conservative?
Today we start a new poll of Sandwalk readers. See the sidebar on the left of this posting.
Try and answer according to where you see yourself on the political left-right spectrum without paying too much attention to the labels. The "left wing" category isn't meant to imply radical Marxism; it's meant to encompass the views of most socialists in Europe. "Liberal" doesn't mean that you have to be a member of a "Liberal" (upper-case L) party. It just means somewhat left-of-center.
Similarly, "right-wing' doesn't mean you share the point of view some evil dictator. It means you have more in common with very conservative points of view than with more moderate conservatives.
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19 comments :
I say liberal. I'm generally left of center, with some neo-liberal leanings (e.g., on international trade and immigration). In America my views would roughly match those of the Brad DeLong/Jason Furman left.
Difficult. It is virtually impossible, it seems to me, to map North American political usage to European - one of the reasons being that the spectrum isn't simply two-dimensional. Leaving that aside, in UK political terms, I'm left of centre and most closely align with the Lib Dems under Paddy Ashdown - but I see the Labour party, nominally social-democratic, as currently to that party's right. I would put Clinton at the same point on the spectrum as Blair and Cameron (at least in his current incarnation), and significantly to the right of Brown (at least on the strength of Brown's speech a week or so ago). To the average American, I am probably a raging socialist because I support the NHS; but my support for trade-unionism, for example,is lukewarm at best.
If I describe myself as a liberal, I put myself in the company of many USAians who are far to my "right" (see Clinton above); yet I am emphatically not a socialist (your preferred definition for "left-wing"). I suppose my problem is that from my point of view your categorisations leave a huge hole between 4 right-wing categories and one left-wing category that isn't a residual category, but specifically defined in a way that excludes my views.
More liberal than conservative, but certainly not socialist. There's a lot of leftist ideals that I find unworkable and silly, mostly bordering on conspiracy theory.
Using the political compass, I fall into the libertarian left, with the result being close to the centre on the left/right axis and close to the bottom of the libertarian/authoritarian axis.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
I met the political compass years ago, and scored slightly left and rather a lot anti-authoritarian. Some call this libertarian, but I find the words of the self-professed libertarians I've read rather strange and disagreeable. So I'll have to find another label.
Incidentally, since I first met the compass, I've moved slightly closer to the left-right center, and slightly further down the anti-authoritarian axis (away from center).
I also agree with the other stuff Geoff Wozniak said. Leftish, certainly not socialist (as I understand the word), and annoyed with the conspiracy-mongering simple mindedness sometimes found among the political left.
I was a conservative, until the definition of conservative changed to encompass a lot of frankly anti-conservative things. Somehow, this has made me a liberal in practice.
But I'm not a liberal (either large or small L). There are times where the traditional `liberal` stance on things and I are at strict odds.
I sometimes wonder if there are other people out there who also feel that the word `conservative` has been highjacked by ideals that would have never been considered as such even 15 years ago.
The comments so far tend to illustrate the very limited usefulness of trying to stick a single label on a multitude of potentially disparate beliefs and opinions. This is especially so if we can't even agree on the basic definitions.
I usually stay away from labels, especially since I don't want to be lumped in with the usual political parties that are associated with Liberal(Tm) and Conservative(tm)... but usually on those blog memes that determine your political views, I usually get somewhere to the left of Ghandi. I am a party of one, I guess :-)
I mostly call myself a liberal because I am leftist on many issues. I like the term "Liberal" because, like "atheist" it seems to bug so many conservatives.
I knew I was a liberal when Jerry Falwell started blaming us for pornography in 7-11 stores in Texas. Any group that Falwell hated was the group I wanted to be in.
I said "moderate." It's probably not exactly 50-50; I'm sure I'm slightly more liberal than conservative. But I don't classify myself as a liberal because I definitely have a conservative stance on some issues.
I called myself "liberal", but an American "liberal" is probably a conservative in Europe or Canada. :-)
I am against the US invasion of Iraq, for universal health care, am opposed to the intrusion of religion into public life by the government, and am in favor of free speech and oppose the erosion of our civil liberties.
Of course, my being in favor of free speech angers some of my "leftist" friends.
I was a conservative, until the definition of conservative changed to encompass a lot of frankly anti-conservative things. Somehow, this has made me a liberal in practice.
I know the feeling. I used to call myself a "centrist." But now the right wing (in the USA) has moved so far to the right that they probably can't even see the middle any more.
Leftie Libertarian (politcal compass)
Needless to say I don't exactly have anyone to vote for in the two major parties in the US:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/usprimaries2007
If you are in the center in the US you are considered a leftie. Dennis Kucinich is closer to the center than all the Republican candidates and basically all the other Democratic candidates. Ron Paul the "Libertarian" amongst the Republicans isn't much of a libertarian.
Wow, I'm surprised they put Ron Paul as slight social authoritarian. He's pro-small government and favours non-interventionism. Perhaps it's his opposition to abortion? He's certainly an economic libertarian.
I'm in the right-libertarian quadrant, virtually vacant in North American politics. It's very lonely...
I too have difficulties to map from Europe politics to North American. A typical liberal would here be without collectivist leanings so right-wing [Sweden], which I guess is a flaming leftie compared to US right-wings.
Liberal, anti-collectivist, and anti-authoritarian to boot. But most libertarian groupings or their opponents descriptions of them currently makes little sense to me, so I will go with 'liberal' to avoid any confusions. However that translates into North American politics, the map problematic seems to suggest to me that I don't inhabit any identifiable "wing".
I too have difficulties to map from Europe politics to North American.
Me too. Larry specified the left as "Socialist", that sounds to me more to the left than the regular social democrats. There's the left wing, and the left left wing :)
I used to be involved in the Green party in Finland (the Swedish incarnation is a bit too kooky for me, sorry) I guess I would be liberal in Larry's classification. But that's not what "liberal" means in Europe. The former agrarian parties make up a lot of the center or the "liberal faction" in the European Parliament.
PS: Torbjörn, have you seen this? :)
The radio button setup makes it impossible to vote for more than one choice. Left wing, right wing - what good is just one wing? If i had a pair of wings I could fly.
Wow, I'm surprised they put Ron Paul as slight social authoritarian.
The War on Religion by Ron Paul
Is Ron Paul a Dominionist?
windy, it's adorable.
Anarcho-Syndicalist -- that is to say, spitting distance of Anarcho-Communist. Essentially in the very bottom-left corner of the political compass graph.
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