Welcome to the home of the most intelligent, informative, impartial, and encompassing quiz for finding out the answer to the question: "Am I liberal or conservative?”

By taking this anonymous quiz, you will gain an understanding of what the liberal and conservative positions are on 32 important issues.

Keep an open mind as you answer these questions, and don’t try to match them to any political party or candidate you are already familiar with.

This is not a Democrat vs. Republican quiz. It is more accurately described as a mainstream left (i.e., progressive) vs. mainstream right (i.e., conservative) quiz.

As you go through this quiz, you will see where the liberal vs. conservative positions are true opposites of each other, and where they merely represent a matter of degree. On some issues, you will clearly prefer one ideological side over the other, but on other issues you might wish you could take a more integral approach that combined the best of both sides.

This web site is offered as a public service by Dean Michaels, author of the insightful (and entirely non-political) book, Wise Parent: The Essential Guide to Raising a Child. It is the first parenting book with an integral approach to the subject of childrearing. I hope you check it out!

Feel free to send me an email with any suggestions for improving this quiz: elib//gmx.com [replace // with @].

Now on to the quiz!

Quiz Version 1.00

1. Abortion

A. Most abortions today are performed for personal inconvenience reasons or family planning reasons, with little weight given to moral considerations or the rights of the fetus. Society has a duty to regulate abortions because a fetus is not “A woman’s body” but a distinct being “IN a woman’s body.” As a baby-in-development soon to enjoy all the rights endowed to every human being, a fetus deserves some legal protections against a mother who would offer it none. What happens to a human fetus is of considerably greater consequence to society than what a woman does with what is truly just her own body (skin, hair, teeth, etc.). It goes against logic and morality to claim that if a woman wants to carry a fetus to term, her fetus is infinitely precious; but, if a woman wants to have an abortion, her fetus has no moral worth. A fetus either does or doesn’t have inherent worth, regardless of a woman’s wishes. Abortion should certainly be allowed in some cases (rape, incest, in the case of specific potential birth defects, and when the life of the mother is at risk), but allowing all abortions regardless of the reason because the fetus is not yet viable—that is immoral. In general, abortions should be discouraged, and when an abortion is contemplated, a woman should be informed about the adoption option.

B. The difficult decision whether to have an abortion revolves around highly personal considerations that are best left for the woman involved, rather than society as a whole. The rights of a pregnant woman pertaining to her pregnancy clearly outweigh the interests society might have in her pregnancy. Government should not be allowed to put any pressure on a pregnant woman to endure the course of pregnancy and carry her fetus to term. If a woman decides in her sole judgment that abortion is the best course for her life, she should have the right to have her pregnancy terminated up until the point of viability (and in some cases, even after). A woman is in the best position to know how pregnancy will affect her mentally, emotionally, and physically, and what effect carrying a fetus to term will have on her life and well-being—and the future life of her baby. A woman should be given convenient, publicly funded access to medical doctors and to facilities for carrying out the abortion. Otherwise, many women will resort to unsupervised abortions that are far more likely to jeopardize the health of the mother.

2. Death Penalty

A. The death penalty is an appropriate punishment only if two conditions are met: first, the crime committed is particularly shocking and injurious to society (typically murder with specified “aggravating factors”); second, the judge or jury has to find that the defendant is guilty beyond any doubt (not just beyond a “reasonable doubt”). Under these specific circumstances, imposing the death penalty is both just and moral. Keeping a terrorist who murdered dozens of innocent men, women, and children alive equates the evil of mass murder with such acts as armed robbery, large-scale financial fraud, or other crimes that send defendants to prison for the rest of their lives. If the worst murderers are kept alive, not only can they continue to commit assault, battery, and even murder in prison, but they also get the opportunity to propagate their views and ideologies from prison. The families of murder victims must continue to live with the knowledge that the person who, for example, raped and murdered their seven-year-old daughter will always be taken care of in prison—enjoying meals with newly made friends, watching television, and working out. To think that each and every murderer must be kept alive is morally reprehensible.

B. Some crimes are truly horrific, but those committing them are every bit as human as the rest of us. Human beings can do terrible things to each other out of ignorance, but ignorance is a temporary condition that can be remedied by education, reflection, and insight, whereas being put to death is permanent. Many societies have already done away with capital punishment because even if we knew with certainty that the defendant committed the crime, having the state kill an unarmed prisoner sitting in a chair or lying in bed in a prison cell is to engage in behavior that is in some way equivalent to the horrific action the defendant committed in the first place. The death penalty is also never likely to be administered equally to the rich and poor, to all races, or to both sexes. Capital punishment not only takes the life of the defendant, but also devastates the lives of the defendant’s parents, siblings, children, and friends, who are being punished severely though they are blameless. Spending the rest of your life in a small cell with no privacy or expectation of release is a suitable punishment for any serious crime—and even if it isn’t, it is still better than involving the state in the killing of human beings.