OK, so Jerry and the Blogger Who's Name We Do Not Speak Aloud both did this political test thing, and I did it, too. And here I sit, scratching my head, trying to figure out exactly what to make of it...

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You scored as Republican. <'Imunimaginative's Deviantart Page'> Republican 83% Anarchism 75% Democrat 42% Socialist 42% Green 25% Fascism 17% Communism 17% Nazi 0% What Political Party Do Your Beliefs Put You In? created with QuizFarm.com

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I think this test is highly skewed and far too simplistic, of course.

The only three labels I am really comfortable assigning to myself are "Christian" (specifically, Roman Catholic), "Conservative," and "Capitalist."

It doesn't really surprise me that the test would indicate that my beliefs line up closely with the Republicans. Still, I am not a member of that political party, nor any other political party. There are a number of things that separate me from the majority of card-carrying members of the Republican party. The big one is my opposition to the death penalty. Another is that I'm sympathetic to those who believe in marijuana legalization.

Anarchism? Huh? How do I score so highly as an anarchist? One of the questions on that test has to be far-too-highly weighted toward anarchism. It must have something to do with my inherent mistrust of government, although I believe that I'm more of a libertarian than an anarchist. The closest I would say I've ever been to anarchism is that there are a number of old-school punk bands that I like (Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Black Flag). Other than that, I think I'm basically a law-and-order kind of guy.

The funny thing about that, though, is that part of my job involves assigning an alpha-numeric character on our products to distinguish them for shipping purposes. When I assign the letter A, as often as not I put a circle around it to turn it into a punk anarchy symbol. I do it as a gag. I think.

I can't see me ever wandering into the Democratic party. There are just far too many things I disagree with them about. The easiest way to sum it all up is to say that I believe that most Democrats... most liberals, in fact... are closed-minded moral relativists.

Socialism? Believe it or not, I'm more sympathetic to out-and-out socialism than I am to modern liberals and democrats. For the most part (although not entirely), it's my belief that the hearts of socialists are in the right place. They believe in many of the same things I believe in... equality, justice, providing for the poor, etc. The problem is that socialism as a political structure simply doesn't work, and it's failed every time it's been tried. Still, I think that a bit of socialism is a good influence on the human heart. It probably promotes compassion... so even though it's unrealistic, I guess I see it as political poetry.

The Green Party is full of nuts. Harmless, silly, ineffectual nuts, I'll grant you that... but nuts all the same.

As far as Fascism and Communism, I'm curious about which of my ideas can be aligned in any possible way with those two brutal philosophies.

And, lastly, the test says I'm zero percent Nazi. So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

I don't take these things very seriously, of course... and although I take these tests as a goof from time to time, I rarely put any thought into them. In fact, I've thought more about the results of this one than any other.