Dem Candidates Political Compass

[canuckagainstBush]

politicalcompass.org recently posted where they think the Democratic candidates each stand on the compass. As it turns out, Kucinich and Sharpton are the only ones who aren't in the same quadrant as Bush.

Political Compass

[BurtWorm]

1. Even they are too right wing and authoritarian for me.

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -9.00
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -9.59

[canuckagainstBush]

2. wow

I'm a minus seven for both.

[AndyTiedye]

3. -6.5 Left, -8.5 Libertarian

which would place me closer to Kucinich than the candidate I prefer, Carol Moseley Braun,
according to their figures.
But Where would Kucinich be on their chart if you plugged in his pre-campaign position on abortion? (He was agin' it until he started running for the Democratic Presidential nomination).
Roe v. Wade is hanging on by a thread, and we cannot afford to take any chances there.

Rev. Sharpton has a worrying authoritarian/moralistic streak. I don't much care
for hip-hop myself, but it worrys me to see a politician campain against it.
He would probably be equally hostile to other manifestations of dance culture.

I like Carol.
She'd be just the person we need to start healing the country and the world.
and by my compass, she is the most liberal and least authoritarian candidate.

[ThirdWheelLegend]

6. "until he started running for the Democratic Presidential nomination"

This is false. Before his VOTE AGAINST the 'partial birth abortion' ban, Kucinich had not voted on abortion related things for two years. Because he was re-evaluating his views on this. He spoke with and listened to many women during this time to come to his pro-choice stance. He did not all of a sudden decide this because of a campaign.

Here is some of his view...
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/issue_rightsreproductive.htm

"The decision to terminate a pregnancy is one of the most serious decisions a woman might make. It is deeply personal. In our society, all women and all men have a right to make difficult moral decisions and make personal choices. But women will not be equal to men if this constitutionally protected right is denied."

more

" And because I know that the right to choose is under attack -- as President, I will only support someone for the Supreme Court if he or she agrees to uphold Roe v. Wade."
snip>

You say: "Roe v. Wade is hanging on by a thread, and we cannot afford to take any chances there."

Well then Kucinich would get my vote, he has vowed to make support of RvW a litmus test for SCOTUS nominees.

TWL

[newyawker99]

11. Hi canuckagainstBush!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[liberalcapitalist]

4. i dont know

I would like to see some data to back this up

[newyawker99]

12. Hi Liberalcapitalist!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[AP]

5. Why do people take these sites seriously? Why don' you think they have an

editorial agenda.

There's a ton of subjectivity involved in making these determinations.

Pretending that it's a science only softens people up into accepting a candidate (or disliking a candidates) for reasons you think are legitimate, whereas, if you argued it out, you'd never accept a clearly subjective analysis.

It's like saying, according to this mathmatical formula, Lost in Translation is the best movie of the year. Would you believe that if you saw it on a compass on some website?

Didn't think so.

[RandomUser]

8. You're right about the bias

If you go to Issues2000.org, you'll find they use a system similar to this compass, but their evaluations of the candidates are different from this site. The issues2000.org site actually displays all the data and references that they use to make their candidate evaluations, so I trust them more. The compass shown in this site is contraditory to the one in the Isssues2000.org, and definitely biased.

[Clark Can WIN]

7. Do any of these compasses point towards

reasonable dialoge, debate or ( gasp* ) REALITY?

[RandomUser]

9. Here's a better Compass

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=428332

Note: That thread is dated, and the values compiled on the thread are no longer accurate, but the links to the information are. If you follow the links, you will see the updated values for the candidates, since they continually update the candidate ratings as they put out new position papers and speeches.

[RandomUser]

10. I don't really want to recompile the information with the new figures

Since it took well over an hour to do it the first time around. The hyperlinks and multiple pages are a pain to edit. But since the writing is all there, and the links don't need changing, if someone wants, they can take that post and just add updated % ratings.