The Pew Ideological Test

At least I think the test is the same one Pew Research used to analyze the political landscape. It seems to work contrary to the title of the Huffington Post article: America's Idealogical Splits Aren't As Simple As Left, Right and Center.

The test itself seems to lean pretty much towards a linear political model. There's something like 23 questions. You only get two choices with each question. Some questions leave out some obvious choices. For instance, there's one about homosexuality where the choices are something like, "Society should encourage homosexual behavior" and, "Society should discourage homosexual behavior".

The only answers are that society should involve itself one way or the other. The libertarian response would be something like, "People's sexual activity is their own personal business", but that's not given as an option.

I wasn't the only one that felt the test was too limited. One comment to the article pointed out the question about involvement in foreign countries vs. taking care of things at home was a bit goofy. You have to choose one or the other, yet the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. 

I wasn't too surprised to score as a Steadfast Conservative given the questions and acceptable answers. There's something missing with the thought process that went behind the test. At least the World's Smallest Political Quiz allows three answers. The Pew test might work a little better if they'd allow Maybe, or Not sure, along with their other answers.