Pew's new Political Party Quiz puts respondents in cute little boxes

You would think that an organization as respectable as the Pew Research Center would take the opportunity during this election year to create a quiz/survey that allows you to analyze the issues that are being discussed. Or maybe the aim for the guys working at Pew is to curate fake data that is digestible by a mass audience and then sold to the ravenous for-profit media elite.

If you take a quick look at Pew’s new Political Party Quiz (created just in time for the beginning of the Republican National Convention in Tampa) it does none of the former and a lot of the latter. It compartmentalizes, it divides and it puts the issues in neat little boxes that can fit on a neat little spectrum.

What’s worse, if you do any thinking at all, you can figure out the answers which will align you with being a “Liberal Democrat” or a “Conservative Republican.”

Click on the jump to find out how to answer Pew’s quiz and ensure that you’re on the side of the spectrum you want to be. 

There needs to be stricter laws and regulations to protect the environment.
Liberals: Completely/Mostly Agree

Conservatives: Completely/Mostly Disagree

The government should help more needy people even if it means going deeper in debt.

Liberals: Completely/Mostly Agree

Conservatives: Completely/Mostly Disagree

The growing number of newcomers from other countries threaten traditional American customs and values.

Liberals: Completely/Mostly Disagree

Conservatives: Completely/Mostly Agree

I never doubt the existence of God.

Liberals: Completely/Mostly Disagree

Conservatives: Completely/Mostly Agree

Business corporations make too much profit.

Liberals: Completely/Mostly Agree

Conservatives: Completely/Mostly Disagree

Gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry legally.

Liberals: Completely/Mostly Agree

Conservatives: Completely/Mostly Disagree

The government needs to do more to make health care affordable and accessible.

Liberals: Completely/Mostly Agree

Conservatives: Completely/Mostly Disagree

One parent can bring up a child as well as two parents together.

Liberals: Completely/Mostly Agree

Conservatives: Completely/Mostly Disagree

Government regulation of business usually does more harm than good.

Liberals: Completely/Mostly Disagree

Conservatives: Completely/Mostly Agree

Abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.

Liberals: Completely/Mostly Disagree

Conservatives: Completely/Mostly Agree

Labor unions are necessary to protect the working person.

Liberals: Completely/Mostly Agree

Conservatives: Completely/Mostly Disagree

Poor people have become too dependent on government assistance programs.

Liberals: Completely/Mostly Agree

Conservatives: Completely/Mostly Disagree

And of course, the results and where you are placed on the spectrum does not allow for so-called “Liberal Republicans” or “Conservative Democrats” to exist. Most political ideology quizzes—like the one at politicalcompass.org—put people on a two-dimensional plane (even though if you also study the questions enough, you too can guess where your results would fall).

Maybe the problem isn’t with Pew, but with the superficial understanding of the so-called issues in our current political climate. Politicians are actively looking for ways to neatly package their beliefs. The media craves those 5-second sound bites so that its pundits can tear them apart. The general public only listens to what is provocative, eye-catching and interesting. It’s an endless cycle that begs the question: what came first? Was it the public’s thirst for not really knowing what’s happening in Washington? Was it that the institutions that make up the media have found that they can gain more ad revenue by sticking to what’s sexy? Or was it that the politicians have found that they won’t be heard unless their message is easy to understand?

Whatever it is, Pew is playing into it. They definitely are not furthering discussion. They’re closing it. And we can’t really blame them, can we?

Check out Pew’s Political Party Quiz: http://www.people-press.org/political-party-quiz/