Are you a Conservative or are you Progressive (apparently the new term for “Liberal”)? Take the test and report your scores below and share your thoughts.
Take the Test Here
I took and scored a 147/400. Which apparently makes me “Very Conservative”. I think their ranking system is a bit skewed. I would say that I am just regular conservative at best, certainly more moderate than many of my blogging peers that I interact with on other sites. Of the three legs of conservatism I would say that I am following:
– On Fiscal issues and the Economy: Very Conservative. I am a capitalist through and through. Sure, I think there does need to be taxes and some regulation, but too much of both stifles economic strength and growth. A strong economy = a strong nation more than anything else.
– On Social Issues: Standard Conservative. I do believe that there should be some moral standards placed on society; otherwise our culture and society will fail. I am pro-life. While I think there does need to be social programs to help the poor and less-fortunate, I believe the programs need to be limited and designed to encourage/force personal improvement, education, and finding a job. People cannot receive a full ride off the government. If a person is poor because they refuse to work and make more money off of welfare, they need be dropped and left to their own devices. At the same time, our government needs to develop more educational opportunities for individuals. An educated society is key to our national health. This should be done with accountability and setting expectations on teachers, parents, and students. Throwing money at it doesn’t work. Finally, I hate and despise social security. What a piece of trash legislation. First of all the government has no right to say that they need to set up a retirement account for anyone. But since they have, they have no right to use the money we are forced to put into it to pay for other programs. But since they have done that too and bankrupted the system, it needs to be either dropped and the money paid out to everyone or it needs to be fixed by 1) Ensuring all money put into social security stays in social security, in safe and insured accounts that accrue interest over time, even if it is just 1% interest. 2) We should be given the OPTION to choose to invest any percentage of our SS that we want into the stock market, mutual funds, futures, and so on just like a 401K. If we mismanage it and lose it all after we CHOSE to do it, tough for us.
-On National Security: Moderate Conservative. It’s simple, freedom and security are inversely proportional. When one goes up the other goes down — aka, the more security we have, the less freedom we have. I like freedom a lot. I don’t like big brother. The Bush Administration went to far in the name of protecting us, just listen to a speech from former DHS Chief Michael Chertoff and you will be scared to death. (Sadly, the left wants to infringe on our freedoms just as much, though in a different manner. Either way we lose.
