http://www.politicalcompass.org/usprimaries2008

look at how bunched up pretty much all the candidates are up in that upper right corner. i mean, i guess from an international standpoint, they all are pretty similar, pushing for similar results, just with different ways of getting there.

Go ahead and check out where Ron Paul really brings us.

It's all about the pressure to make promises, to "do something" about that "bad stuff out there".

Hah! And I always thought that Giuliani was the most Authoritarian.

Id prefer it if Ron Paul was deep 3rd quadrant, but hes still a step in the right direction (which automatically means he has no chance).

I'm sorry? how the fuck is Ron Paul Authoritarian?

I've taken some of those tests, and been asked retarded questions like "do you believe in astrology", with an answer strongly against pushing you towards being socially conservative (or "authoritarian").

In addition, I can tell you right now that site is full of fucking shit and likely run by 'liberals' that think they're 'libertarian' from a quick look at their rankings for the Australian 2007 election.


http://www.politicalcompass.org/aus2007
They placed Family first, a popular "far right" target of the left due to their socially conservative bent, to the right economically of the ALP, along with the generally protectionist national party, thought the national party was at the time part of a coalition government.

Family first is populist - lets take a look at some of their policies:
http://www.familyfirst.org.au/familyfirst.php
"A Fairer And More Compassionate Tax System"
"Making Bank Fees Fair"
"Caring For The Less Fortunate – Poverty And Human Rights"
"Standing Up For Our Agricultural Sector"
"Supporting Parents With Paid Maternity Leave",
to name a few present on the site.

It's a populist party with interventionist economic policy, yet for some reason it's to the right economically of the ALP, which hasn't been a "left wing" party on the federal level since the 80s, and could probably be considered to be to the right of New Labour in the UK.

The idea that one nation, utterly populist and protectionist is anywhere even moderately right of center on economic issues is fucking ridiculous.
http://www.onenation.com.au/Policy%20document.htm

I'd also be skeptical about the Liberals being much more authoritarian then Labor, given that the only major policy differences in the election were on industrial relations, along with differences in spin and pork-barreling.
Even IR differences were superficial.

It's pretty clear that they have no fucking idea about policies, and are making up rankings on gut feelings and on the suggestions of internet lefties.

Yeah, that site is full of shit.

Ron Paul is practically a libertarian. He's a big fan of states rights, abolishing the income tax, drastically cutting government spending, getting our troops the hell out of pretty much everywhere (including Iraq), legalizing marijuana, etc.

The main difference between him and libertarians is that he believes states should make decisions on issues like abortion and gay marriage, while libertarians generally agree that abortion and gay marriage should be legalized nationally.

Left, right, authoritarian, and libertarian are subjective, to say the least. To think you could determine a person's political ideology solely from this sort of test is a little shortsighted. It's a fun test to take, but it's hardly definitive.

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... and that if it were up to him, he'd vote against Abortion where as a Libertarian would probably be in favor of it.

... and that he believes Churches should eclipse the state in importance.

There are other issues he disagrees with as well.

More importantly, however, when the website says "Libertarian" it doesn't mean the Libertarian party and/or it's beliefs. In that end of the spectrum you'd find anarchists, anarcho-capitalists etc. He's definitely not one of them.

While I don't dispute any of that, I would still expect Ron Paul to be on the other side of centre.
Of course, defining where "centre" is can be a wonderful shitfight of its own.

Look at where Obama is on this page for comparison:

http://ontheissues.org/images/s080_020.gif

And Ron Paul:

http://ontheissues.org/images/s070_080.gif