What Are You?

Lately I've spent a lot of time pursuing two of my favorite pastimes: politics and categorizing people into totalizing groups. If neither of these topics interest you, I suggest you stop reading now.

In terms of politics, as Ice Cube might say, "Tuesday was a good day." Corzine won New Jersey and Kaine took Virginia in two tough fights. BTW, Corzine beat Doug Forrester, who's only major political experience was as the former Republican mayor of West Windsor, New Jersey. That's right West "Home of the Siew Crew" Windsor. Apparently, he:
"prevented West Windsor from becoming a densely packed hodgepodge of strip malls, fast-food drive-ins and liquor stores... rezoned large swaths of farmland for commercial and residential purposes... [with his work] the property values in West Windsor skyrocketed because of the [new] sewer system.

Today, West Windsor is affluent, highly educated and its schools rank among the top in the state. Nearly 70 percent of all families have annual incomes exceeding $100,000. West Windsor's train station, Princeton Junction, is New Jersey's fourth busiest.

The town's landscape is defined by large homes, upscale shopping centers and modern office parks. To some, West Windsor is a model community that demonstrates how measured growth and progressive civic planning transformed an agricultural backwater into an economic powerhouse.

Jany, who is one of its last remaining farmers, said he has mixed emotions about what has become of the bucolic town that existed when Forrester took his seat on the committee 26 years ago.

'It was sad to see the land disappear,' Jany said. I'd much rather see it the way it was. But if you're going to put jobs on Route 1, then people have to live somewhere." - NorthJersey.com Article

That's right, everybody. West Windsor "cuz people have to live somewhere."

Alright, back to politics. Unfortunately, all four of the Reform Ohio Now issues failed to pass despite polling that showed Issues 2 (absentee voting for all) and 3 (limit campaign contributions) with 60% approval and Issue 5 (elections supervised by bipartisan board as supposed to corrupt secretary of state) at 50-50. None of the Issues even hit 40%. The next day my mom called to console me and suggested that I "give up on Ohio. It's a lost cause." Sometimes it seems like it is.

In sunnier news, California got their act together and struck down all of the Governator's ballot issues. Also, in just the last week:

• Santorum (PA-Sen) would lose 32-54 if the election were held today.
• Fox News has Bush approval rating at 36.
• ANWR is safe. For now.
  
• Against Cheney's wishes, the Senate passes an anti-torture bill 90-9 amidst reports of US secret prisons and chemical warfare in the Middle East. This lead to the following exchange between an angry black woman reporter (QUESTION) and Scott McClellan. As Kartik can attest, you don't want to be in the way when a black woman gets angry:
• THOMAS: Why don‘t you answer the question on the exemption?

  MCCLELLAN: I just did.

  QUESTION: Is the Vice President's Office taboo to answer? I mean, you blanketly cover the White House. The Vice President's Office is under the auspice of the White House. Why can't you answer...

  MCCLELLAN: I'm not going to get into all the discussions we have with members of Congress. If they want to add additional information, you're welcome to contact their office as well.

  QUESTION: Well, they don't answer like you do. You are at that podium. We need to hear from you.

  MCCLELLAN: And I just made it clear what our views are. There is a statement of administration policy that has been put out...

  QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) torture, the vice president wants torture. Which one...

  MCCLELLAN: Wrong. That is absolutely false.

  (LAUGHTER)

  QUESTION: Well then tell us. Explain it (inaudible) to the White House.

  MCCLELLAN: The president's made it very clear that we do not torture.

  QUESTION: (inaudible) the vice president (inaudible)?

  MCCLELLAN: I just told you.

  (LAUGHTER)

  QUESTION: No, you have not.

  MCCLELLAN: If you want...

  QUESTION: I'm not trying to be...

  MCCLELLAN: No, I'm not going to let you -- you are mischaracterizing what this is about. It's put in the statement of administration policy.

  Look, you can keep showboating for the cameras, but we've made clear what our views are.

  (CROSSTALK)

  MCCLELLAN: Well, you are. Let's be honest about it.

  QUESTION: I'm being honest. I want an honest answer from you.

  MCCLELLAN: And you got it in the statement of administration policy.

  (CROSSTALK)
  
  All the inaudible parts are the reporter getting all up in McClellan's shit. Black women tend not to annunciate very well before their about to cuss you the fuck out. The back-and-forth is really entertaining and I've spent the last half-hour looking for it. I think its on the Press Briefing page but you need RealPlayer to see the video.
  

• And most excitingly to me: the House rejected a $51 billion budget-cut package pushed by Republican leaders and the White House that would scale back Medicaid, food stamp and student loan programs.
• Only 360 days or so til Election '06.

Now to attempt the awkward segue...
One of the most interesting aspects about politics is trying to figure out how people define themselves, their world, their candidates, and their party to determine who to vote for. Most people for the simple liberal/conservative or Democratic/Republican distinction and while I'm all for problematic totalizing labels, I am also interested in more nuanced labels.

In an attempt to convince you that you're one of them, the Libretarian Party has the "World's Smallest Political Quiz" that places you not only left or right but up or down depending on the liberalism or conservative of your economic and social views. For example, this is where I scored.

I've become so moderate over my years at Brown from my Economics department brainwashing and as a reactionary defense against Brown pussy liberals. If you want a more complete, detailed, and objective test of your place on the political compass, try politicalcompass.org's questionnaire. Basically, the same idea but they rotate the compass 45 degrees to the left. I scored (-2.5, -2.7) so about David Cobb (Greens) and Ralph Nader level.

Post your compass numbers under comments so we can make a compass of the folk.

However, the most interesting test I found was at the Pew Research Center which breaks the American population into nine different political typologies. From conservative to liberal they are: Enterprisers, Social Conservatives, Pro-Government Conservatives, Upbeats, Disaffecteds, Bystanders, Conservative Democrats, Disadvantaged Democrats, and Liberals.

They have a 25-question test to see where you fit but I can save you the time and tell you that you're gonna test as a Liberal. That's what I got and I thought I answered pretty moderately. Classifying the different typologies on a spectrum, as I did above because as they explain by going through the different groups, left/right/up/down or economic or social liberal/conservative labels don't always work. For example, there are pro- and anti-immigration types evenly distributed throughout the "spectrum."

Segue #2... Lately I've been considering whether its just me or everyone is so focused on categorizing people and what are the reasons I feel the need to do so. For my lastest video project, I put the mic (read: my dick) in random people's faces and asked them "Who They Are" and then "What They Are." When they tried to conclude their thought, I would prod them with "What else are you?" After I'd made them appropriately uncomfortable, I would then show them video of someone else answering the same questions and ask "What is (s)he?... What else is s(he)?" Here's what I've figured out.

Foucault is a smart guy. Maybe even smarter than Oprah. Or my mama. I'll give you some time to get your mind around that and explain what I mean later. Feel free to leave theories under comments as well as your results from the political compass tests.