When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Hunter S. Thompson

11 November 2005

Pew's Political Typologies

"The Party of Sam's Club" (the Weekly Standard story referenced in the post below) refers to the Pew Research Center's recent breakdown of the American public into nine "political typologies."

Intrigued, I went over to the Pew Research Center's web site and found the results of the study, entitled "Beyond Red vs. Blue," in which they asked a bunch of questions of a random sample of Americans and then assigned them their politico-demographic pigeonholes.

It will surprise none of you, I'm sure, to learn that "Principled Libertarian" is not listed as one of their typologies.

In fact, on their quick-and-dirty online test, I actually scored as a "Liberal" (!) despite my enthusiastic endorsement of horrific violence and officious meddling as important tools for foreign policy, my rah-rah boosterism of Big Business, my utter disregard for the environment ("the Earth can hack it") and my "screw the poor" attitude towards the provision of government services.

(I think that my positions on so-called "social issues" - homosexuality is fine, dirty books are fun, immigrants make our society healthier, etc. - pushed me solidly into the New York Review of Books crowd. Gah.)

See how you do.

And check out Profiles of the Typology Groups: Beyond Red vs. Blue to learn about Enterprisers, Disaffecteds, and Bystanders, among others.

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