As far as I’m concerned, a key gateway test of whether someone might be a libertarian is whether they get upset when ordinary people are mistreated or brutalized by government.
- Such as the case of an elderly couple who had their hotel stolen by government.
- Such as the case of the family grocer who had his bank account stolen by government.
- Such as when the government wanted to steal someone’s truck because a different person was arrested for drunk driving.
Though admittedly any decent person should get upset by those examples.
So perhaps we need something more detailed to identify supporters of limited government, individual freedom, and personal responsibility. So when one of my friends sent me the “definitive political orientation test,” I immediately was tempted to see my score.
I don’t know if it’s the “definitive” test, but it seems reasonably accurate. As you can see, I’m about as libertarian as you can be without being an anarchist who wants zero government.
Though I should point out that there aren’t any questions on anarchism. I think the test probably assumes anarchism if your answers are both anti-welfare state and anti-defense.
This “circle test” is probably a simpler way of determining where you are on the big government-some government-no government spectrum.
But the most more sophisticated measure of libertarianism is Professor Bryan Caplan’s test. I only got a 94 out of a possible 160, which sounds bad, but that was still enough for my views to be considered “hard-core.”
And since we’re looking at online surveys, here are my results from the “I Side With” quiz. I don’t endorse candidates (as if anyone would care), but this quiz suggests that Rand Paul is closest to my views, followed by Scott Walker and Marco Rubio.
For what it’s worth, I’m not exactly shocked to see Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders at the bottom.
By the way, since we’ve shifted to a discussion of the 2016 race, I was the warm-up speaker for Governor Jeb Bush at a recent “Road to Reform” event in New Hampshire sponsored by Americans for Prosperity. Here’s what I said about fixing the budget mess in Washington.
You can watch the entire event and also see what the governor said by clicking here.
And for folks in Nevada, I’ll be the warm-up speaker for a similar event with Ted Cruz on August 14.
P.S. The most inaccurate political quiz was the one that classified me as a “moderate” with “few strong opinions.”
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I got ‘Libertarian’, too. But I don’t get upset ‘when ordinary people are mistreated or brutalized by government’. I go ballistic.
Unfortunately,
Even though Rand Paul appears as 67% most compatible with my thinking on the issues, I just can not get by his stance on meddlesome foreign policy.
I guess out would have out-scored him as “Hardcore Libertarian” by a wide margin. There again, I am an “odd duck” in any social circle. I truly believe in maximum independence and personal responsibility of the individual.
– Rev. Dragon’s Eye
Is it just me, or does a chart that shows progressivism as a block touching both conservatism and libertarianism seem a bit off? Not to mention anarchism as a block that butts up against libertarianism. True libertarians simply want what our founding fathers wanted- limited government that stays out of their lives.
I suspect most of them (the founders) would test as libertarians or even anarchists on this test. The whole chart seem shifted hard to the left as if that is the new center. And yet, it is not. Most likely, if you gave this test to every American, the average would be somewhere right of their center point.
Nice five minutes. Too meaty; too fast. You should have requested 8 … 🙂
I do not believe politicians would stray from corruption simply because there were marginal (2 or 3%) cuts in spending. (You give them way more credit than they deserve.) The dollars lessened would come from those parts that are otherwise not criminal but are budget responsibilities. No cuts to funding their crony gambits; The People would be worse off.
I see no reason to trust any elected official. Look at the results.
If you are standing outside of bank and you see four men run out of the building with bags and then 10 minutes later you hear about a robbery, you don’t have to be inside to know what happened. The same with Washington.
The end result speaks for the players and the process. The numbers, the dollars, the votes, the pig roast, and pork frying matter not. In the end, they all are crooks. Those that are not, if there are any, didn’t stop the thievery and didn’t report it, so they are guilty in another fashion.
As long as the Jackass Party and Trunkated Mice are involved, there will be corruption in Washington. You could cut all the money, they’dd still spend on those things that line their pockets.
As for the talk, I can’t think of a candidate beside the Hillarious or Colonel Sanders, I’d never go to bat for than Jeb Bush. His brother and his father were poor presidents. One was a goof and the other couldn’t finish. Totally Bush-league. There is just no way Jeb could get my support just based on the family tie. I quit GOP because of W. I can recognize criminals when I see them.
No matter what Jeb says, He’s a Bush. That ain’t good enough for America. ©2015
As a fellow “minarchist” (and a 96 on Caplan’s test), I thought you might appreciate this article. Maybe you could take this guy apart in a future post? OMG! http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/paul-mason-post-capitalism-will-set-you-free-1.2303406
[…] By Dan Mitchell […]