How Conservative Are You?

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A number of bloggers have suddenly discovered this old political test which rates how conservative you are from 0 to 40. Glenn Reynolds got a 21 as did Ann Althouse, Allahpundit a 25, Andrew Sullivan a 26 (which proves people wrong who think he’s a crazy liberal; he’s actually a crazy conservative), and Eugene Volokh got all pedantic about the questions and refused to give his score. I always knew Volokh was a supreme coward… when it comes to answering inane questions and telling everyone your result, at least.
I got a 34. Yes, you can pretend the questions don’t make sense and refuse to answer them, but I think it’s fun to give it a shot. Give it a try and put your score in the comments.

108 Comments

  1. i scored 30. i would have never mistaken myself for Jack Kemp, but i guess there are worse things…
    some of the questions didn’t have a response that suited me, so i went with what would be closest. but, I suppose if this is free, non-binding and just for fun, what the hey!

    Reply to this comment
    1. Right in between Bob Dole and Ronald Regan. Of course some of those questions were a close call. The pentagon or the post office? Both are screwups. Trial lawyers and doctors? Both groups need a machinegunning, the only question is which first.
      Then some just didn’t have a good option. More prisons or rebuild cities to curb crime? Where’s the option for more executions? Execution absolutely eliminates recividism(sp?). We should use it more.
      And how does Regan become the most conservative person possible?
    Reply to this comment
    1. I have to admit I guessed on the Haiti/N. Korea question.
      See also the World’s Smallest Political Quiz and Political Compass for two more good tests that rate you on two axes rather than just one. The first takes less time and the second more. Both are enjoyable. I ask people to take them before we have political debates so we at least know where we’re starting from. I fall between Libertarian & Conservative on the Smallest Quiz and generally +0.6 economically and +1 on the liberal/authoritarian scale on Political Compass.
      Frank – you could gather scores on everyone with guts enough to answer and graph your readership. Cool what you can do with a computer and too much time on your hands, huh?
    Reply to this comment
    1. I can’t believe that Bob Dole is more conservative than I am but I can only attribute that to a couple of the social questions where I’m sure I was marked down some. I knew what the conservative answers were but a small Liebertarian streak popped up.
    Reply to this comment

  22. 37.
    I think they missed a few questions though.
    The key to world peace is creating a One World government.
    Agree/Disagree
    The first supreme leader of the One World Power should be William Jefferson Clinton.
    Agree/Disagree
    The French should be responsible for the One World Power security forces.
    Agree/Diagree
    The US will be responsible for financial aid to other “states” of the One World Power.
    Agree/Disagree
    Death Penality verdicts shall be allowed a 30 day appeal, not 30 year.
    Agree/Disagree

    Reply to this comment
    1. Where was the non of the above options for questions such as:
    2. Which do you trust more:
      The Pentagon or
      The U.S. Postal Service?
      The executive branch or
      The legislative branch?
      The FBI or
      The IRS?
      The CIA or
      The Peace Corps?
      The Joint Chiefs or
      The United Nations?
    3. What about private institutions and people? Which do you trust more?
      Trial Lawyers or
      Doctors?
      Union leaders or
      Business executives?
      Professional athletes or
      Team owners?
      To mock Rodney King “Can’t they all just leave me alone?”
    Reply to this comment

  27. 23 – But the more and more questions I answered (and while its impossible to have a perfect quiz like this) I felt like the options presented weren’t enough for me to choose from. These two perhaps being the worst…
    Trial Lawyers or
    Doctors?
    Union leaders or
    Business executives?

    Reply to this comment

  29. I only scored a 30 and I thought Ronald Reagan was a liberal during his last 4 years! WOW! I need to “conservative up”! The news media is dumbing me down big time–or–I’ve been reading too many silly blogs and need to start getting serious about politics again–naw–the test blows!

    Reply to this comment

  32. Aw shucks! I only managed a 37. It must be the presence of a couple of retarded blue state kids in my family that influenced the outcome. Either that or I’ll have to re-hone the edge on my rapier wit to achieve a sharper conservative outcome.
    A predictable result but good fun anyway.

    Reply to this comment

  33. I got a 35 and I must agree with everyone before me about some of these questions. Jocelyn Elders or Pat Robertson? Two opposite extreme ends of the spectrum, but I went with Pat Robertson just because he kind of looks like my grandpa and the memory of Ms. Elders telling us to take take our sexuality into “our own hands” just kind of creeps me out.

    Reply to this comment

  38. 37 although there were a few questions that made me pause;
    Union leaders or business executives- in the last couple of years I wouldn’t trust either to unplug my toilet.
    Elders and Robertson- no offense to my Christian brothers and sisters but that man seriously needs a time delay switch on his mouth. If he’d just think about “how” he phrases things, he’d get in less trouble. Don’tch think.
    Rebuild cities vs prisons- I don’t think prisons are doing much good, but rebuilding something so others can drag it down doesn’t sound like a plan either.
    Was good for a laugh though.

    Reply to this comment

  42. Wow…as a Reagan republican I expected to score much more conservative…it turns out I am just a middle of the road Powell shlub…I will shut-up now and admire your wisdom in silence.
    Oh…got a 19/20…ashamed, no, but surprised…maybe being middle of the road allows me the flexibility to call BS on either side and Colin Powell ain’t that bad of an alignment (a Teddy K./Bubba Clinton match would have sent me into a total tail-spin though).
    Also…loved Ronnie (registered to vote just to cast one for him), but chose FDR…no telling which way that may have pushed me, but with such a lame score, it still likely would not have saved my soul.

    Reply to this comment
    1. About what I expected. I assume N. Korea was more of a threat than Haiti, and I think the libertarian in me kept me lower than I otherwise would be. My fiance was a 22, but her mother was a 15, meaning I’m helping convert the liberals one at a time.
    Reply to this comment

  51. 39! I’m with Spacemonkey looking at Frank and SarahK going, what the hell. You becoming some kinda hippie in disguise?
    Come on people, you’re having trouble with Doctors vs. Trial Lawyers? At least a Doctor is trying to help you and if they screw up you can sue their butts for real money. However the Trial Lawyers just suck the money out of companies, give a pittance (a few thousand if your lucky, a video rental and $2 in popcorn if your not) while they walk away with tens of millions.
    And some ‘so-called’ conservatives are having trouble with ‘the Pentagon vs. the Post Office’? At least the Pentagon doesn’t extort money (package insurance) from you to make sure that they don’t ‘lose’ the package in transit (some postal worker takes it home for a Christmas bonus). Whatever.
    Heh, heh, heh. Just wanted to start a little flame war for the new year. You know get it started right.

    Reply to this comment

  52. 28, but it’s never been my goal to conform to the conservative label, just to follow my convictions. If they happen to be more or less conservative than the next guy, so be it.
    This test is lame.

    Reply to this comment

  54. I got a 35 – that makes me Bob Dole. You don’t have to tell Bob Dole how conservative Bob Dole is. Bob Dole already knows how conservative Bob Dole is. Bob Dole will whup yer ass with one hand tied behind his back.
    Actually, here in New York, a 35 makes me Heinrich Himmler…

    Reply to this comment

  61. 28, which I would actually say overstates how conservative I am.
    Now for a leftist Nut O’ Meter. (estimated to Scale)
    Editorial Staff of Washington Post -2
    Al Franken -4
    Nancy Peloci –8
    Editorial Staff of New York Times –12
    Editorial Staff of the LA Times -16
    Editorial Staff of San Francisco Chronicle –20
    George Carlin -21
    Editorial Staff of the Guardian -25
    Michael Moore -26
    Carl Marx -28
    Gore Vidal -29
    Barbra Streisand -31
    Oliver Stone -32
    Cindy Sheehan -36
    Harry Belafonte -37
    Editorial Staff of the Nation -38
    Code Pink -38
    Michael Focault -41
    Fidel Castro -42
    Noam Chomsky -47
    Joseph Stalin -48
    Tedd Rall -57
    Pol Pot -58
    This isn’t just a measure of communism or how many people you have killed.

    Reply to this comment
    1. I have to admit though, I find myself liking the “distance-from-San-Fransisco curve” idea, as long as it’s relative. Living in Utah, that would at least take me up a point or two…much more than some hippy 34-scorers from Florida. 🙂
    Reply to this comment

  72. I only got a 36 – but then I have developed a distrust and dislike of big buisiness in this country and the way they supply cash to both sides of politics to make sure they get what they want. At least pick one side or the other to bribe.

    Reply to this comment

  76. I guess I will settle for my 38, although I’d suspect I’m somwhere to the right of Mr. Reagan. 🙂
    Some comments on other posters…
    Geoff: “For the record, I was most peeved at being asked to choose between gun control and mandatory sentencing.”
    Nah, as a Libertarian you should be for mandatory sentencing of violent offenders. Everybody should be allowed to pack but those abuse the right need to be bitchslapped hard. Better if everyone in sight thows down on the butthole on the spot but if the G gets em first….
    seanmahair: “Elders and Robertson- no offense to my Christian brothers and sisters but that man seriously needs a time delay switch on his mouth.”
    Nah, wouldn’t help. He is just an asshat. Doesn’t matter if I agree with most of his political positions and vote for most of the candidates he would be flogging, I still think the guy does more harm to the cause than Dan Rather. He does the right things for all the wrong reasons.
    Francesco Poli: “further proof that I have to leave the Socialist Utopia of Europe before I’m tossed in a concentration camp.”
    Don’t worry, the Socialists are at the peak of their power now. Worry about the Muslims beheading you if you stay in Eurabia.

    Reply to this comment

  77. Like Viking a 29. But I too am more Libertarian than Conservative.
    I suppose what did me in was growing up in the USSR during the first 9 formative years of my life (though my parents were devout anti-communists; my mother’s side were all hardcore monarchists. My father’s parents were both in the Party — boy, do I have stories about them… And one of my uncles was a KGB official operating under deep cover in both the USA and Canada to establish links between the Party and organized crime.)
    Another thing that did me in was the FBI vs. IRS question. Yes, I know the IRS are scum, but the FBI invaded my family’s home, took a lot of our stuff, and made it look like a robbery. The Tax Man, meanwhile, has done very little to us. (Of course, it was Jimmy Carter’s FBI, so that could have had something to do with it.)

    Reply to this comment

  78. D’oh! I only got a 26. I’m a point higher than George Bush Sr. I can see that. I do see myself disagreeing at times with the Right, but it’s not so much supporting the Left on the issue but rather just disagreeing and maybe, unfortunately, the Left coincidentally agrees with me.
    I think it’s the environmental questions that got me. I agree environmental concerns are important, just not the Gaia concept of the Left. I support sane environmental positions. Chemical waste should not be put into rivers, for example. I think recycling is an efficient idea. However, the current Left environmental agenda is so far out in left field, pun intended, that I just ignore them when they talk.

    Reply to this comment

  81. I got a 35, but my comments are these:
    If Bob Dole is a 35, then Ronald Reagan is an 70 and Barry Goldwater is a 90!
    George Bush and Colin Powell are both listed about 10 points too high. They’re both much bluer than this quiz puts them.
    I agree that some questions were difficult, but Trial Lawyers/Doctors? At least Doctors do SOMETHING. Trial lawyers sit around waiting for someone to screw up then take all of their money. Who among us is perfect? No one, but if trial lawyers had their way, we’d all be broke and they’d have all of the money.
    The question that threw me was Team Owners/Atheletes…
    Hmmm… either those billionaires who extort millions from the public for stadiums (need I point out that no one was ever taxed to pay for Boeing or IBM to build a new building, and the economic benefit is much more obvious) or the criminal thugs who work for them? That isn’t a choice, it’s a dilemma.

    Reply to this comment
    1. I would have gotten 100 if I had the chance.
      #10, reduce crime by encouraging gun ownership and use
      #11, lower standards for getting the death penalty and reduce the appeal time to under 1 year
      #18, abortions should be punishable by death of the mother and father if he did not try and stop it
      #20, sorry guys, I think ALL porn, not just graphic, should be banned. Leave the Rembrandts but shut down the playboys, hustlers, penthouses, and all tv and movie nudity unless it is National Geographic nudity like in Apocolypto
    Reply to this comment
    1. I believe drugs and porn should be totally legal. I think this took me down a few.
      On the short test, absolute Libertarian.
      On the moral compass:
      Economic Left/Right: 3.13
      Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.41
      and the closest famous person to me there is Andrea Merkel. Cool. I always did like her.
      My “conservative” credentials always get blasted to high heaven by my belief that drugs should be legal (as in people who want to kill themselves and ruin their lives are welcome to it) and prostitution should be legal as well (as in buying tickets for a movie and dinner just about costs the same as a street corner fellation).
    Reply to this comment

  98. I got a 38 one time through and a 37 the next, and I have just as much “libertarian leanings” as anyone else who claims such.
    Except for the questions on porn and possibly gay marraige, I don’t see how folks of libertarian leanings can get so far down into the 20’s.
    Unless of course you’re one of what I call the iconoclast libertarians who share the leftist contempt of heirarchy, traditsiya, and Hayek’s “society’s implicit knowledge”.
    Edward, I too was born in the USSR. I was 4 when the wall came down and only stayed in St. Petersburg (my family, we never called her Leningrad)until 1992 so I was around the same age as you when I left for Odessa then Israel then beautiful paradise Florida.
    I have lost much of my Russian and all of my Hebrew.
    Such beautiful languages, it is a shame.

    Reply to this comment

  102. Kolya,
    I still speak the beautiful language of our native Odessa. As for Hebrew, I only learned it for my Bar Mitzvah and forgot most of it.
    My mother would be embarassed of me, as she was as conservative as they come. Too bad she is no longer with me. I, on the other hand, guess that because I am surrounded by liberals to the left of me, liberals to the left, into the valley of NYC rode I and the lonely 600 or so libertarians and conservatives in the city.
    Heck, I might be the most conservative man in my neighborhood (which crawls with ragheads, BTW — Brooklyn Heights & Cobble Hill in Brooklyn). I guess my attitudes are skewed by all those damned libs around me. My wife is one, but she is reasonable; in favor of defense and not blind to idiocy. Her best friend, though, is a PC whore who spouts multicurtural platitudes and love thy Arab neighbor crap and is so liberal she stands slightly to the right of Al Franken. A former good friend of mine came out as gay last year and now parrots (did I mention parrots-parrots-parrots-PARROTS) every word said on Air America. At least the two commie-fags (er, homosexual far leftist socialists), who were their friends, have left my neighborhood and are now polluting upstate NY near Albany. Hell, my two nearby delis are run by Arab Moslems on one side (I order ham if I go there just to make ’em cut it) and Palestinian Christians on the other. Plus, half the cars in the area have Far Left bumper stickers. With that kind of neighborhood I guess that I have nothing to judge my level of conservatism against.

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  103. got a 38. Robertsons antics are annoying, and and I’ve never heard of the woman he was to be compared to. I would have also picked FBI on the comparisons, but I felt that I need to hear about them doing a lot of ‘illegal’ wiretapping against terrorist before I put too much confidence in them.

    Reply to this comment

  104. I stumbled across this blog, and took a liking to it. I remember taking a very similar test in high school (years back), and I scored more highly conservative than my Reaganite teacher (he was a breath of fresh air). So I’m a bit surprised I scored a 36. Maybe it’s because I can’t bring myself to ban the porn… I believe married people should be able to have their (private) fun, after all.
    I don’t remember Bob Dole being so far to the right, though…

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