Hmmm, I'm a Centrist

So, I read an article today in the local Fort Collins weekly newspaper, strangely enough, it's named the Fort Collins Weekly.
Basically, it's a community newspaper. Folks in the local community write their latest diatribes dissertations for publication, so they can pretend to be more intellectual than their neighbors for a week.

It's a really good paper actually, I just have to rip on some of the personalities that make their presence known via its pages. Not that I'm any better of course, I mean what I do here is exactly the same thing. I rant about stuff that's really important to no one except me, then try to convince everyone that I'm the only person with the right answer. Ain't it cool? ;)

Anyway, one article I read was comparing the current state of housing and the housing policies of major cities in the state to cities in other states. That's not important. What is important is the link the author, a political Libertarian, provided to an on-line political test. The Worlds Smallest Political Quiz. The link for the quiz is at the top of the page. 10 questions, and pretty damn accurate from what I can see by messing with it. It is sponsored by a Libertarian group, but they had no trouble calling me a tree huger when I tried to fool the test into thinking I am one.

Now, I've never really thought of there being a whole lot of choice out there politically. You have your silly Liberals, the nutty Conservatives, and the really nutty conservatives, like the constitutionalists and the Mormons.

Personally, I always tell people I'm a moderate.
As it turns out, there ain't no such thing. If you look at the image I uploaded, there's just 5 choices when it comes to political leaning. Liberal, Conservative, Libertarian, Statist, and Centrist. So, it turns out, I am a moderate, it's just that moderate is the wrong term to use. Of course around here, if I tell someone I'm a centrist, they're not likely to know what that is. They'll probably associate me with one of the constitutionalist groups, or the posse comitatus or something.

Anyway, I'm a Centrist with Liberal/Libertarian leanings.
Some people might see me as a fence sitter. Personally, I think it's my duty as a citizen to try and see both sides of the issue when making a voting decision. Most people don't in my limited experience. They just accept the words and ideas of others as being 100% absolute. So I guess, in a way, I've learned something new today. I've always know what I was politically, I was just calling it by the wrong name.

It may be the worlds shortest political test, but I'd love to see a longer version. Say 100 questions or so. There's just no way this thing can be wholly accurate with only 10 questions. There's too many variables in life that you can't dig into in a 10 question test.
For example, "Military service should be voluntary. There should be no draft"
I think we should have mandatory service actually. 2 year minimum. However, that doesn't mean I think those draftees should have to go die in some middle eastern shithole like Iraq. So, I have to mark that one as a "Maybe".
Another one would be "End government barriers to international free trade". It's not our government that puts up those barriers. The US imports more than it exports in terms of finished goods. That's called a trade deficit. The problem is "no one wants to buy our finished goods". Bullshit. It's that foreign governments tariff our exports higher than anyone else's so the locals can't afford our goods. So, we've stopped exporting. (there's more to it than that, this is just in a nutshell.)
So again, I have to mark that one as a "Maybe".

Having more questions would allow the test to really get in-depth on those issues.

In other news, I have 8 more days until I start my new job. w00t!