Politics According to the Daily Universe
The Daily Universe, in their October 25, 2006 issue, printed a short survey to be filled out in order to determine your political leaning. Fortunately, it also included the brief disclaimer, “Editor’s Note: The following is not intended to be a scientific means of determining readers’ political affiliations. We hope the following gauge will encourage readers to do more research on the current political issues and the candidates running for political office.” For each issue, you could side with either the “Democratic View”, “Republican View” or “Undecided.” Most of the questions were written so poorly and were so badly biased I had a hard time picking either side, so I ended up being undecided on six things, Democratic on one, and Republican on two. The questions follow:
Issue #1
Democratic view: I oppose the death penalty
Republican view: I support the death penalty
Issue #2
Democratic view: I support the development of the technology for a limited national missile defense system.
Republican view: I support deploying an effective missile defense system at the earliest possible date, designed to protect all 50 states.
Issue #3
Democratic view: I favor public schools that compete with one another and are held accountable for results.
Republican view: I favor expanding parental choice and encourage competition by providing parents with information on schools.
Issue #4
Democratic view: On welfare, I favor more funding or increased childcare so welfare recipients are more able to find adequate employment and to work steady jobs.
Republican view: On welfare, I prefer increasing mandatory workweeks for those receiving government assistance and funding to religious organizations to also assist recipients.
Issue #5
Democratic view: On foreign policy, I believe the following: “When we have the military force available and have made our best efforts to join with allies, and cost is proportionate to the objective, we must be ready to act.”
Republican view: On foreign policy and military deployment, I believe the following: “Republicans know what it takes to accomplish peace: robust military forces, strong alliances, expanding trade and resolute diplomacy.”
Issue #6
Democratic view: I believe we should work to end discrimination and allow gay men and lesbians the right to marry.
Republican view: I believe in the traditional definition of “marriage as the legal union between one man and one woman.”
Issue #7
Democratic view: I favor mandatory photo ID, child safety locks, full background checks and a gun safety test to buy a new handgun.
Republican view: I favor background checks, but oppose federal licensing and national gun restrictions of law-abiding gun owners.
Issue #8
Democratic view: I support the right of every woman to choose, consistent with Roe v. Wade, regardless of ability to pay. Individuals should make decisions regarding reproduction.
Republican view: I support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that 14th Amendment protections apply to unborn children.
Issue #9
Democratic view: I support tough new lobbying reform, publicly guaranteed TV times for debates, a crackdown on special interest ads and a nonpartisan Democracy Endowment that raise money through taxes to finance congressional elections.
Republican view: I support enacting “paycheck protection,” that ensures no union member is forced to contribute to anyone’s campaign. I believe we should preserve the right of every individual to express their opinions and advocate their issues.
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October 26th, 2006 at 11:12 am
I can’t tell the difference between the positions on Issues #3 and #5.
October 26th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
My personal favorite was #6, “I believe we should work to end discrimination and allow gay men and lesbians the right to marry.” - While I can see that if you believe that way you would view it as discrimination, it biases the question toward those in favor of gay marriage and those against discrimination, and does not separate the two. There is a difference.
October 26th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
Oh how I miss the days of the daily universe
October 27th, 2006 at 12:14 am
I’m not sure who came up with this survey, it just says it’s from the editorial staff of the Daily Universe, but it seemed to me that a lot of the statements weren’t directly opposite of each other. Perhaps that’s by design, but that doesn’t make for a very distinguishing survey to determine someone’s political leanings. TAke for example, number 2. I feel like both sides are saying essentially the same thing and would really agree with both. The same holds true for a lot of them. Although it did accomplish its task of getting us to “think about politics,” so maybe that’s all they were going for, and that’s why they set their bar of quality management so low.