Cynical Nation

Well I'll be damned. Duncan Black has finally got off his ass and posted something besides an "Open Thread," or a single-expletive link to someone else's comments. He's designed the Atrios liberal test, and it's getting pretty wide circulation among the blogosphere. Today I was finally bored enough to take it. Here goes:

1. Undo the bankruptcy bill enacted by this administration.
Yes.

2. Repeal the estate tax repeal.
No.

3. Increase the minimum wage and index it to the CPI.
No. (Hey, these are easy!)

4. Universal health care (obviously the devil is in the details on this one)
What? Oh come on. There's no way in hell you can give a simple yes/no answer on this one (as Duncan himself seems to acknowledge in the parenthetical.) I guess I'll skip this.

5. Increase CAFE standards. Some other environment-related regulation.
No.

6. Pro-reproductive rights....
Yes.

7. Simplify and increase the progressivity of the tax code
Simplify yes, but he loses me after that. I'll go with "No."

8. Kill faith-based funding.
Sure.

9. Reduce corporate giveaways
Sure.

10. Have Medicare run the Medicare drug plan
I agree with what many others have said: Hell no. Just kill the damn thing.

11. Force companies to stop underfunding their pensions.
I have to say "No" here. Any company that perpetrates fraud by raiding pension funds in bad faith should be punished, but I can't support a federal mandate for companies to fund pension plans.

12. Leave the states alone on issues like medical marijuana.
Well sure, but why stop at medical marijuana? Gotta love Duncan's selective federalism here (In fairness, however, the Republicans are guilty of the same thing.) It's also worth noting that liberalism will become a small club indeed if drug decriminalization becomes a prerequisite.

13. Paper ballots
Oh, why not?

14. Improve access to daycare and other pro-family policies. Obiously details matter.
I fear Duncan's "details." He's right, they do matter. Something tells me he's not referring to building a wheelchair ramp in front of "Tots-R-Us." My guess is he's talking about a new middle class entitlement. The answer is "No."

15. Raise the cap on wages covered by FICA taxes.
No.

So all right, I count 6 affirmatives in my answers. So I guess that makes me about 40% liberal (or more like 43%, if I toss out the question I refuse to answer.) Sounds about right, I guess. Not bad for a mindless worshipper at the altar of Chimpy McHitler-smirk.