This Political Quiz published in a 1994 edition of USA Today is making the rounds for some reason, with Andrew Sullivan, Ann Althouse, Glenn Reynolds, and Eugene Volokh all taking and commenting on it.
I agree with Reynolds and Volokh that many of the questions are rather silly. I also think it rather amusing that Ronald Reagan is a 40/40 ideal type Conservative and Jesse Jackson a 0/0 perfect Liberal. That’s a pretty narrow range.
For what it’s worth, I scored 33/40 which puts me somewhere in between Jack Kemp and Bob Dole on their spectrum. I’ve always liked Dole but never considered him particularly conservative, let alone more so than Kemp. I’m significantly more conservative on this test than Althouse (21), Reynolds (21), and Sullivan (26), which isn’t particularly surprising. Volokh either didn’t bother to calculate a score or declined to reveal it.
Then again, I’m hard to place on these spectra, as I’m simultaneously non-religious, socially conservative, and think most social issues outside the legitimate scope of government. I’m a hawk who thinks defense spending should be cut because we’re wasting hundreds of billions procuring systems we don’t need and a skeptic of international organizations who thinks foreign aid nonetheless a worthwhile expenditure if targeted correctly.
