Duck Season

Let's dissect the political quiz that Nick linked to earlier, shall we?

The quiz was designed by a libertarian group, and lo and behold, over a third of all quiz takers end up being classified as libertarian. While there is probably some selection bias involved, the questions in the quiz also stacks the deck in favor of their preferred result. Here's some examples:

Military service should be voluntary. (No draft)

Well, let's see ... liberals are against the draft ... moderates are against the draft ... and conservatives are against the draft ... hey, that makes everybody! In fact, the only people to come out in favor of the draft recently are Charles Rangel and a few other left-wing nuts who want to use the threat of military service to get people to oppose the invasion of Iraq. However, if you answer "yes" to the question, which most people would, that moves you 20 points on the "personal issues" axis towards the libertarian/left liberal areas.

Government should not control radio, TV, the press or the Internet.

Most people who see this question would answer "yes", because of course we don't want the government to "control" the media, as each person end up defining "control" as something they don't like. But a conservative who answers "yes" because he doesn't want PBS and NPR to be governmentally funded gets moved another 20 points on the "personal issues" axis towards the libertarian/left liberal areas. I sense a trend ...

Drug laws do more harm than good. Repeal them.

Another question that would move you 20 points on the "personal issues" axis towards the libertarian/left liberal areas if you answer "yes". Many conservatives, including the National Review editors, however, are against the drug war on pragmatic grounds. Being against the drug war doesn't make one a social liberal, but this quiz says it does.

So if you're against the draft, drug laws, and government "control" of media, it moves you out of the authoritarian and right conservative quadrants. Of course, many conservatives are against all three. Many conservatives taking this quiz will be surprised to find out that they've suddenly become libertarians.