Re: Operation Politically Homeless
Daniel C. Burton (dburton@ocf.berkeley.edu)
7 Dec 1997 20:16:52 GMT
We used the World's Smallest Political Quiz to attract attention last
semester and I think we got more people signing up per hour on Sproul than
this semester. (This semester we did better just because we were out
there more hours.) I payed attention to the results, and most people
scored left-liberal or centrist. A few scored right, and a few scored
libertarian. A few even scored authoritarian. There were actually quite
few people who scored libertarian who hadn't at least heard of
libertarians before.
The reason Democrats and Republicans don't need a test like this to
attract people is that everyone already knows about the conventional
left-right spectrum. You know the one that goes Communist - Progressive -
Liberal - Moderate - Conservative - Reactionary - Fascist. The whole
point of the World's Smallest Political Quiz is to show people that there
are points outside of this spectrum and that in fact more ideologically
consistent than Liberal and Conservative. (Also that Communist and
Fascist are about as close as you can get to eachother -- If you ask
people who they more identify with, Stalin or Hitler, they rightfully say
neither.... Pay little attention if you want. The strange connections
betweeen fascisim and socialism are just a peculiar interest of mine.)
Making any of these positions on the convential spectrum (aside from
Moderate) have two separate axes with Personal and Economic issues would
just be embarassing to them because it would show that they want
government intervention half the time and they oppose it the other half --
whether or not they phrased all their questions positively or negatively.
About things like the phrasing of the minimum wage question: They're just
phrased with the arguments that most people who agree with the positions
find most compelling. I really don't think it would be at all obvious to
someone who was undecided and unfamiliar with free-market positions that
minimum wage laws actually did cause unemployment and they would probably
just check maybe.
I think Operation Politically Homeless would probably be a good idea, but
it shouldn't be owned by the club. It's better for an individual to
actually own the kit. If someone can afford it on their own (or with some
contributions from others) we should go for it. If not, we can just make
a cheap "Take the World's Smallest Political Quiz" sign ourselves and I
already have hundreds of quizzes lying around (they cost about 1 cent
each).
Really, I think the WSPQ, along with the ISIL literature is sort of the
best combination we can get. If someone scores libertarian you try to
sign them up or give them the literature. Otherwise, you just take the
quiz, tally the results, and leave them alone. This will not only help us
recruit people, but it will also help us figure out exactly which
ideological group we have to target. (I think last semester we concluded
the campus was left-centrist, which helped us avoid wasting time
preaching to socialists.)