Your politics may surprise you

I had not heard of the Nolan Chart until it was discussed on the Glenn Beck Program last week. The Nolan Chart is a survey made up of ten questions. Once you answer all of them, your answers are tabulated to determine which of the five political groups your views on the issues most closely relate to. You will notice there is no Democrat, Republican, or Independent. The five groups and their definitions, according to Webster's Dictionary are :

• libertarian - a person who upholds the principles of individual liberty especially of thought and action
• liberal - not literal or strict; loose; broad-minded; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms
• centrist - a person who holds moderate views
• conservative - tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions; traditional; marked by moderation or caution; marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners
• statist (progressive) - an advocate of statism; statism is concentration of economic controls and planning in the hands of a highly centralized government often extending to government ownership of industry

On Glenn Beck's show the other day, he also made the point that statist and progressive are the same. Webster's defines progressive as "making use of or interested in new ideas, findings, or opportunities." Since Hillary Clinton defines herself as "a modern progressive," I would say that Beck is right on target.

Now that we've defined all five groups, let's have some fun. Please visit The Nolan Chart website (click here) to take the 10-question quiz and see which group it calculates that you are in. You may be surprised at the results. I was. I've always considered my self a "conservative," but the results I got classified me as a "libertarian." Once you take the quiz, please send me an e-mail and in it tell me two things : 1) where it grouped you, and 2) where you thought you'd group. I'm gonna tabulate all the results and follow up with another blog entry later. I want to see how many people were grouped where they thought they would. This could get interesting.