Quiz Results- Am I a Libertarian Anymore?

Well, no- and not just because the Libertarian Party is well on its way to being an annex of the Republican Party.

But I thought I'd re-take a couple of online tests and see what they had to say.

The first of the two, of course, is the "World's Smallest Political Quiz," the Libertarian Party's first line of outreach. The last time I took it, many years ago, I came out at 100/70- that is, advocating total liberty on social issues, and greater-than-average liberty on economic issues. That put me in the Libertarian quadrant of their diamond- but close to the liberal edge, and (as I learned from experience) very unwelcome in the Libertarian Party itself.

Some of the questions have changed since then, and so have some of my answers. Today I score 100/30- still full balls-to-the-wall for personal freedom, but a lot less enthusiastic about the LP's definition of economic freedom.

Full disclosure time- here's the quiz for you to follow along and give your own answers.

1. Government should not censor speech, press, media or Internet.- Yes. There are a very, very few exceptions to this rule, not enough for "Maybe."
   
2. Military service should be voluntary. There should be no draft.- Yes. No involuntary servitude except in cases of invasion or rebellion.
   
3. There should be no laws regarding sex for consenting adults.- Yes. My bedroom, my business, NOT yours.
   
4. Repeal laws prohibiting adult possession and use of drugs.- Yes. Portugal has done it for the most part, and the drug problem there is actually getting BETTER, not worse.
   
5. There should be no National ID card.- Yes. There should be government ID, but it should not be a federal issue.
   
6. End "corporate welfare." No government handouts to business.- Yes, except for emergency aid. In the meantime, though, let's break up any business that's "too big to fail."
   
7. End government barriers to international free trade.- Maybe. Imposing unilateral free trade is effective surrender in trade negotiations. We need some leverage to get other nations to lower their own barriers to trade.
   
8. Let people control their own retirement; privatize Social Security.- No. If Social Security had been privatized three years ago as Bush wanted, it would be bankrupt now.
   
9. Replace government welfare with private charity.- No. History has demonstrated that private charity simply cannot keep up with the needs of the poor.
   
10. Cut taxes and government spending by 50% or more.- No, you IDIOTS. You can't do that without eliminating Social Security and Medicare and throwing Grandma out on the street to starve- to say nothing of the other government functions we rely on every day.

So, there's my answers, and there's confirmation that, after George W. Bush's blunders, I'm definitely not libertarian on economic issues anymore. We've proven that stripping away regulations from the financial industry doesn't work, that private charity will not pick up the slack for cuts in public welfare spending, and that there is no such thing as enlightened rational self-interest in the world.

Now, that quiz, though useful to the LP for outreach (it first caught my eye in college), is really too simplistic. OK!Cupid has a somewhat better one, which I took once before, two years ago. At the time it scored me dead center of the Libertarian section of their graph... let's see what it does today:

You are a Social Liberal (83% permissive) and an... Economic Moderate (55% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Strong Democrat, huh? Is that why I'm so angry at Obama, Pelosi and Reid, then?

Anyway, definitely not a Libertarian anymore- and I can't say that's a bad thing at all.

I still prefer to think of myself as a Whig, though- now if only we had a functional Whig Party.