OK, so for our political site that we're setting up for the fall, we will be offering one of those quick & easy online political tests that you find all over the web as a tool to help get visitors and provide some extra content. Our test will be based on a grid with 2 axes: one that measures how conservative/liberal you are on economic issues, the other on social issues. Your answers will put you in one of four quadrants (Authoritarian, Libertarian, Conservative, Liberal). Our strategy will be to have 10 questions on fiscal issues and 10 on social issues. Each question will have 4 choices plus a no-opinion, and you will rank the importance of each question to you ("do you feel stongly/moderately/little on this topic" type of thing). If it seems long and unwieldy, we may drop it to fewer questions. So ... here's where you guys can help if you want. I need to come up with the 4 answers for each question to get different viewpoints without the statements being negative in tone, etc. Rather than try to come up with them all myself, I thought I would open the floor for you guys. There are several ways to do it. The topics are listed below, with some sample answers that I started working on. If you'd like to come up with multiple answers for a question, you're welcome to do that. If you'd like to just post a one-sentence general version of your particular view on various topics, that works too. Then I'll look through them all combined with some other people who are helping out and try to pick four answers that are diverse and cover as much of the spectrum as possible. Here are the twenty fields: <B>Economic</B>: Free trade Minimum wage Social Security / Entitlements Business & farm subsidies Providing services vs. Lower taxes Foreign aid Regulation of business Health care Progressive vs Regressive taxation Funding of the arts <B>Social</B>: Abortion Regulation of TV/Movies/etc The government's role in social issues Drug policy Privacy issues Homosexuality Criminal sentencing (judicial discretion?) Gun control Faith-based charity Federal role in Education If you have suggestions for other fields, feel free to suggest those. I tried to stay away from specifics on things like Iraq and terrorism, because I'm not sure there's are clear party-line principles there as much as there is a Bush view and a non-Bush view. Instead, I tried to take more generic issues that have more clear historical trends. I came up with some ideas for the first 4 social issues: Abortion 1. Abortions are a woman's right and should be legal with few or no restrictions. 2. Abortion is government-sanctioned murder and should be made illegal in virtually all cases. 3. While abortions should remain legal, the government should enact regulations such as parental consent requirements for minors. 4. Abortions should be restricted as much as possible with the ultimate intent of banning them. TV/Radio 1. The government should regulate the content of television and radio broadcast on public airwaves. 2. Free market forces are the only regulation necessary for television and radio content. 3. The government should provide economic incentives for corporations to focus on more family-friendly programming. 4. The government should demand that Hollywood better regulate itself, primarily using threats of regulation as incentive. Social Policy 1. Providing social services ranging from school lunches to Medicare should be a primary function of government. 2. Government should be primarily focused on security and/or regulatory issues and should reduce its role in providing social services. 3. The government should be actively involved in funding social services, but should do so through grants to private organizations. 4. Social services should be cut and that money should be used to reduce tax rates. Drug Policy 1. We should maintain or toughen current drug laws. 2. mar1juana and other low-level drugs should be legalized. 3. The government should legalize all major drugs and allow individuals to make their own choices. 4. Drug sentencing should be changed such that instead of putting users in jail, they are fined or put in rehabilitation programs. I don't know if these are any good or not... If you do help us out and would like to be listed on the credits of the test when it goes online, email me at info@corp.swirve.com.
Yeah, our goal is to a bit more in-depth than the "do you agree with this statement" (yes/maybe/no), and cover a few more issues than they do. But the generally scaling/scoring will be similar. There are a ton of these tests out there, each with a slightly unique style.
