I had another crack at the Political Compass today. I hadn’t taken the test in quite some time, so I was curious to see exactly where I fell within their 2D spectrum and if there was any change.

Here’s my result: Libertarian Left. No real change there.

But let’s be a bit more nuanced: in regards to social policy, I’m squarely in the libertarian camp (-5.23), but economically-speaking, I’m only marginally left-of-centre (-1.50). This fits my own intuition: I’m too centrist to be obviously left- or right-wing, but still clearly politically-defined in other ways.

Now, here’s the real shocker: according to their assessment of the 2007 Australian general election, I’m closest to the Greens, who were the only party in the same quadrant. The Greens are just a bit further left and much more moderately libertarian, but… Oh dear. I’ve always seen them as left-wing radicals using environmentalism to push an economic agenda and, well, maybe I should rethink things.

Anyway, take a look at Kevin Rudd’s ALP versus John Howard’s Liberals in the same graph. Truly, Rudd is Howard Lite—not that I dislike Rudd, but all those lefty uni students whose political memories reach back to 2003 (if you’re lucky) will surely be feeling like they won the consolation prize in the next year or so.

I personally realise that politics is the art of compromise and so appreciate Rudd’s efforts to bring things back more towards the centre after Howard’s rightward drift. In the current political climate, anything too far towards social liberalism is just a no-go, so people like Rudd and Barack Obama seem refreshingly moderate and sensible when contrasted with radicals like George W. Bush and, in his later years, Howard.

Take a look at the graph for the U.S. primaries, then examine the world’s current political landscape. Really, anything other than the authoritarian right is very, very unusual.

So that’s where we’re at: if you want to survive, politically, you need to simultaneously court (or at least not alienate) the authoritarian right (represented by the Christian right more often than not), then differentiate yourself by the degrees to which you’re authoritarian and right-wing. So, if by February next year we have a Rudd leadership in Australia and an Obama administration in the U.S., I’ll be very happy indeed. It’s the best we can do at this point.

Edit: I just want to add that, on the social axis, I’m closest to the Dalai Lama, and on the economic axis I’m closest to Pope Benedict XVI. I find that strangely appropriate, given my previous post…