USA Elections 2000
5 November, 2000

On 24 March 2000, before any of the political conventions happened, I took an online survey at www.SelectSmart.com to find out which candidate best suits my beliefs. Here’s how I scored (the higher the score, the better the candidate matches my beliefs):

    Score         Candidates                         Affiliation
    71             David McReynolds                 Socialist
    66             Ralph Nader                         Green Party
    63             Albert Gore Jr.                       Democrat
    49             John Hagelin                      Natural Law Party
    44             Howard Phillips                 The Constitution Party
    38             Alan Keyes                             Republican
    36             Harry Browne                         Libertarian
    34             George W. Bush                     Republican
    28            Patrick J. (Pat) Buchanan       Reform Party

Here is the scoring based on 2455 people who had taken the survey as of 24 March 2000:

Standings                                             Affiliation

Albert Gore Jr.                20.4 %            Democrat
David McReynolds           17.2 %            Socialist
Alan Keyes                      17.1 %             Republican
George W. Bush              14.0 %             Republican
Harry Browne                  11.7 %             Libertarian
Howard Phillips                 9.6 %         The Constitution Party
Ralph Nader                      5.0 %             Green Party
John Hagelin                     3.3 %           Natural Law Party
Patrick J. (Pat) Buchanan  1.7 %             Reform Party

I found it interesting as although I already knew that my beliefs leaned towards Socialism, I had never heard of McReynolds before. I had heard the name Nader, but knew absolutely nothing about him. The reasons for both of my above statements is probably because I am not a politically active person. I did know that my beliefs were much more inline with that of democrats than republicans. Click here to find out where the candidates stand on different issues.

Here are points I don’t agree with on my top three matches:

McReynolds:

• He doesn’t support hate crime laws, I do.
• Defense spending: He believes in drastic cuts and eventually zeroing it out. I would support that if it was realistic.
• He doesn’t say anything about the death penalty, which I support.

Nader:

• Crime – opposes the death penalty.
• Gun Control – His party agrees with current laws. I think we need better ones.

Gore:

• Defense spending – he believes in spending more for advance weapons. I don’t. I think that we should maintain what we have and spend the money on areas where it can be put to better use.
• Drug policy – all he says is that we need to expand after school programs for children.
• Foreign Policy – things we should promote peace. I think that’s a UN job.

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