Confirmation that I do, in fact, agree with myself.
The Candidate Calculator matches me with Ron Paul at 87.10%. And I’m a Ron Paul supporter. Amazing. In other news, sun rises in East, water remains wet.
A few of the questions annoy me, though…
Do I support federal funding of embryonic stem cell research? Well, no, but that’s because I don’t think the federal government should be in the business of funding medical research in the first place, not because I have any moral or ethical issues with that particular type of research. This little quiz conflates two separate issues: legality of the research itself, and government funding (with taxpayer dollars) of same. Unfortunately, “yes to the former, no to the latter” isn’t a choice.
The same goes for Internet neutrality. While I’m strongly in favor of keeping the net neutral, I don’t believe that (A) it’s the government’s job to mandate and enforce net neutrality, or (B) that the government could effectively do so even if it WAS their job. Like PJ O’Rourke said, “When buying and selling are legislated, the first things bought and sold are the legislators.” Any kind of federal net neutrality bill would be so hopelessly riddled with loopholes and exemptions that it could only hurt matters. So again, there’s no “right” answer available on the test.
Still, I can’t bitch too much; the calculator DID rank Giuliani and Clinton dead-last, with 35.48% and 32.26%, respectively. I’m left wondering why those numbers are non-zero!
TD, well said on net neutrality. I work on this issue for the group Hands Off the Internet, and while I think the shorthand for our position is “anti-net neutrality” the truth is we do support the FCC’s four principles of net neutrality — heck, we even ran an ad about this last year (see first ad).
It really is about whether or not there’s a need for regulation in this area. Obviously, we argue that there’s no demonstrated need for it. The Internet has grown so well because the government has kept its “hands off,” if you will. And if there ever is any serious abuse by an ISP, we already have antitrust laws to take care of that.
If you’re interested in following the subject more, feel free to check out our blog. It’s linked behind my name.
Comment by HOTI Dave — October 16, 2007 @ 10:33 am
I assume that Calvin Coolidge isn’t offered as a choice?
I’m probably going to have to write him in.
Comment by Tam — October 16, 2007 @ 11:57 am