Political Compass Score

I've always thought the popular acceptance of left vs. right is so inaccurate in American politics that it's exhausting trying to correct it or have a conversation with someone from Europe or even Canada about how we view what is liberal and conservative or left and right. In some of the comment sections I've noticed Spinner is the same way. How Americans view liberal and conservative is so wrong classically speaking that it has garnered it's own title as being American political ideology. We Americans tend to think of everything in a linear fashion. You are either on the left, right or center of every issue. When in reality the graph is circular or I've found a compass graph much more accurate.

For instance, take most "conservative" European governments and place them in our political paradigm and they would be what we call "liberal." Send Obama to Europe and he's a moderate conservative. Hardly do we hear such a label depicting Obama here in America.

Anyway, about 10 years ago I found the Political Compass as one of the best graphing tools of where people stand on a political spectrum. You can take the test here to see where you stand, it only takes a couple minutes.

I usually take the Political Compass test once a year just to see if I've changed and how much. As for me, I've generally floated right around the middle with sometimes veering toward a left-libertarian. It usually varies slightly each time. I took it this morning and I see I'm coming back closer to the middle again.

As you can see from the graph, thinking in terms of left and right is very inaccurate. When you place current American political leaders on the compass you really see what I'm talking about.