What is your "Political Quotient" (PQ)?

[purpleoscar]

A conservative guy has a PQ test. The higher the score the more to the left you are.

Get your PQ | Tim Groseclose

My score wasn't a surprise. Some of the questions are nice and tough.

Here’s your PQ: 11.3

Politicians with similar PQs are:

James DeMint (R-S.C. 1999-2009) PQ=5.1
Newt Gingrich (R-Ga., 1979-94) PQ=11.4
Richard Nixon (R-Calif., 1947-52) PQ=12.5
Lindsay Graham (R-S.C., 1995-2009) PQ=14.9
John McCain (R-Az., 1983-2006, 2009) PQ=15.8
Joe Scarborough (R-Fla., 1995-2000) PQ=16.4
Jack Kemp (R.-N.Y., 1971-86) PQ=20.4

Famous PQs | Tim Groseclose

I'm sure some of these politicians changed scores over the years.

 

[Caleb8844]

5.3

Not really sure how to interpret the scores...

 

[Canadiens1131]

I did the following:

Answered two questions

Realised the test was out of 40 fucking questions requiring a good read and think for each

got bored and hovered up to the top banner

Realised the site was for a book about how the "MSM" is all against "real American values"

Posted this reply to the topic,

Still feel my time was wasted.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

Here’s your PQ: 92.6

Politicians with similar PQs are:

Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y., 2001-06) PQ=87.6
Barack Obama (D-Ill., 2005-06) PQ=87.7
Ted Kennedy (D-Mass., 1963-2007) PQ=89.2
Robert Kennedy (D-N.Y., 1965-67) PQ=96.5
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif., 1987-06) PQ=100.7

all i did was answer what it told me the democrats picked for each one, when i saw the first couple bills were cherry picked to make democrats look like evil meanies. so if i followed what the democrats did each time, how are there some with a pq higher than me? i'd put more stock into this quiz if it asked more questions that mattered rather than picking random bills or whatever.

 

[yolland]

Not really sure how to interpret the scores...

Basically, he takes the well-known Americans for Democratic Action system of scoring legislators (by their voting record, on a 0-100 scale) as his basis, adjusts for the fact that the median Congressional score changes with every session (using his own mathematical model), then a given individual's 'PQ' is defined relative to that adjusted median. (In his recent popular-audience book, he expands this into an indirect method for quantifying media bias by comparing legislators' and media outlets' citations of various think tanks, with the legislators' 'PQ' scores guiding how the think tanks and thus by extension the media outlets are scored.) IMO, the biggest problem with the test linked above--and all such tests have their drawbacks--is its frequent use of yes-or-no questions on omnibus bills for which no context at all is provided, save the final vote breakdown along party lines. Most 'political compass' tests focus on specific policy points and do not tell the test-taker where legislators of various parties have stood on those points; while that, too, is unrepresentative of how Congressional votes work in practice, the point of these tests is presumably to measure individuals' priorities and preferences, not what compromises or deals they might be willing to make to work within the system and accomplish particular goals.

I got a 52.4, which may not mean much since I answered "Can't Decide" to several, largely out of annoyance with the aforementioned.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

yeah, i was surprised to see who voted what on the quiz. i thought the whole point of these political-type quizzes was to pick an option just on what you think is the best option. to tell you how your party (be it republicans or democrats) voted kinda takes away that option.

 

[purpleoscar]

5.3

Not really sure how to interpret the scores...

5.3 would be very to the right like a libertarian. 100 would be more to the left. Of course this is based on American politics. It's possible to go more to the left or right of the survey.

 

[BVS]

5.3 would be very to the right like a libertarian. 100 would be more to the left. Of course this is based on American politics. It's possible to go more to the left or right of the survey.

How is that possible if Paul got a 31.8 and Bauchman a negative number?

This survery seems like BS to me...

 

[yolland]

Right, it wouldn't necessarily be accurate to say a low score is 'more libertarian' because PQ is based on adjusted ADA scores, which really only tell you how often a legislator voted for/against the ADA's preferences on certain selected issues (I believe they choose 20 issues per year to examine voting records on). Therefore someone like Paul (or, say, Pat Buchanan, though he's not cited here) may often score to the 'left' of many conservatives. The reason Bachmann's score is negative is because of Groseclose's adjustments to account for the median ADA score varying over time. This doesn't in itself make the survey BS; ADA scores are commonly used by political scientists as one measure for locating someone on the ideological spectrum, but like any other indicator they have their limitations.

 

[BVS]

Ok, that makes more sense...

 

[financeguy]

I'm really glad this was posted.

Reason being, I am amazed at how left wing, anti-free trade and downright statist some of these legislative provisions actually are.

This vote, in particular, is nothing short of a disgrace:

Question 38 of 40
On December 15, 2009, the Senate voted on a provision to allow U.S. citizens to import prescription drugs. Most important, it would have allowed citizens to order prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies, which often sold the drugs at lower prices than U.S. pharmacies. (The provision was the Dorgan amendment to the Reid amendment to the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act.) Democrats opposed the measure 28-31. Republicans favored it 23-17.

We have similar legislation barring private imports of drugs in Ireland. Its only effect is to make pharmacies and big pharma more profitable and drugs more expensive for consumers. It is a absolutely disgraceful and evil piece of legislation wherever it is enacted and it is a disgrace that the Democrats, who claim to be on the side of the working and middle classes, failed to support the amendment.

My quotient, incidentally:

PQ Survey Results


Here’s your PQ: 25.4

Politicians with similar PQs are:


John McCain (R-Az., 1983-2006, 2009) PQ=15.8
Joe Scarborough (R-Fla., 1995-2000) PQ=16.4
Jack Kemp (R.-N.Y., 1971-86) PQ=20.4
Charlie Stenholm (D-Tex, 1979-2004) PQ=28.5
Ron Paul (R-Tex, 1976-2009) PQ=31.8
Rick Lazio (R-N.Y., 1993-2000) PQ=34.4

 

[purpleoscar]

It also has to do with the voting record of a particular time. Gingrich flirted with climate legislation at one point.

Here's his explanation of the methodology. The other videos go into liberal bias which I'm sure lefties here will pass on.

Political Quotient’s with Tim Groseclose: Chapter 1 of 5 - Uncommon Knowledge - National Review Online

The funniest video is part 4 where Tim basically feels journalists are too much into a bubble and should mingle with the otherside like politicians. He makes a good case for it but I find it counterintuitive. I think politicians can be as nasty as journalists or are happy to feed journalists mud to fling on their behalf.

 

[yolland]

Its only effect is to make pharmacies and big pharma more profitable and drugs more expensive for consumers. It is a absolutely disgraceful and evil piece of legislation wherever it is enacted and it is a disgrace that the Democrats, who claim to be on the side of the working and middle classes, failed to support the amendment.

Agreed; that vote was testimony to how badly healthcare reform (and really, Congress in general, as the roll call figures show) got corrupted by corporate money. Dorgan is a Democrat BTW, but his amendment drew proportionally more support from the Republicans (Reid delayed the vote to give Big Pharma more time to lobby Democrats, with the White House's blessing). Nothing is really going to change, no matter which party is in power, so long as our elected officials remain this beholden to corporate interests.

 

[nathan1977]

I apparently have a PQ of 50.2.

Like:
Arlen Specter (R-Penn., 1981-2008) PQ=50.6
Ben Nelson (D-Neb., 2001-09) PQ=55.6

Shrug.

 

[Liesje]

Here’s your PQ: 86.6

Politicians with similar PQs are:

Joe Biden (D-Del., 1973-2008) PQ=80.5
Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y., 2001-06) PQ=87.6
Barack Obama (D-Ill., 2005-06) PQ=87.7
Ted Kennedy (D-Mass., 1963-2007) PQ=89.2
Robert Kennedy (D-N.Y., 1965-67) PQ=96.5

Surprise, surprise...not

For the record I don't like ObamaCare (I want a more socialized health care system!) but "voted" in favor because something is better than nothing....

 

[the iron horse]

Here’s your PQ: 7.7

Politicians with similar PQs are:


James DeMint (R-S.C. 1999-2009) PQ=5.1
Newt Gingrich (R-Ga., 1979-94) PQ=11.4
Richard Nixon (R-Calif., 1947-52) PQ=12.5
Lindsay Graham (R-S.C., 1995-2009) PQ=14.9
John McCain (R-Az., 1983-2006, 2009) PQ=15.8
Joe Scarborough (R-Fla., 1995-2000) PQ=16.4

 

[Inner El Guapo]

Here’s your PQ: 47.8

Politicians with similar PQs are:

Sam Nunn (D-Ga., 1973-96) PQ=39.5
Susan Collins (R-Maine, 1997-2009) PQ=44.2
Olympia Snowe (R-Maine, 1979-2009) PQ=47.9
Arlen Specter (R-Penn., 1981-2008) PQ=50.6
Ben Nelson (D-Neb., 2001-09) PQ=55.6

 

[melon]

Here’s your PQ: 65.4

Politicians with similar PQs are:


Ben Nelson (D-Neb., 2001-09) PQ=55.6
Christopher Shays (R-Ct., 1987-2008) PQ=61.0
John F. Kennedy (D-Mass., 1947-60) PQ=63.7
Arlen Specter (D-Penn., 2009) PQ=67.4
Joe Lieberman (Ind.-Ct., 2005-09) PQ=74.0
Joe Lieberman (D-Ct., 1989-2004) PQ=74.7