Every congressperson’s liberal rank

[MAINEiac4434]

https://legacy.voteview.com/Is_John_Kerry_A_Liberal.htm

Every congressperson and Senator between the 75th and 107th congresses ranked in terms of liberalism; a a score of 0 is the most moderate, a score of -1.000 is the most liberal and a score of 1.000 is the most conservative.

In case you’re wondering, the most liberal congressperson was William Meyer of Vermont, who served one term from 1959 to 1961. The most conservative is Ron Paul.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

This is really cool.

[The Govanah Jake]

Great find

[MAINEiac4434]

Here’s something cool I found: Jeff Flake is considered to be the fourth-most conservative member between 1937 and 2003. In today’s GOP he’s considered moderate.

Also, Virgil Goode is listed twice; once as a Republican and once as an Independent, with different scores.

[MAINEiac4434]

The most conservative Democrat is Larry McDonald, a Georgia congressman who served from 1975 to 1981. He is considered the second most conservative.

The most liberal Republican is Jacob Javits, who’s ranked as the 1,017th most liberal.

Jim Jeffords also has two entries, one as a Republican and one as an Independent.

[Sestak]

Ben Nelson is left of center??

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I don’t know how much I trust the methodology, but the most interesting thing I found was that, of legislators who became Presidents, their record became notably more party-line in the White House. I believe all Presidents have entries independent of whether they served in Congress, so there are double entries for Nixon, Kennedy, etc.

[Abner Beech]

Also, Virgil Goode is listed twice; once as a Republican and once as an Independent, with different scores.

Goode is actually listed 3 times, he started as a Democrat.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Wasn't this "source" discredited like years ago?

[MAINEiac4434]

Wasn't this "source" discredited like years ago?

Well, it is 15 years out of date.

[Dr. MB]

Conservative based on what? On economics alone Paul would obviously be very conservative but if you add on social issues he wouldn't even be in the running.

Also, fun fact, William Meyer later co-founded the Liberty Union Party with Bernie Sanders.

[Santander]

Also, Virgil Goode is listed twice; once as a Republican and once as an Independent, with different scores.

Three times - he was a Democrat, too.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Wasn't this "source" discredited like years ago?

It's not discredited, it's just that it's easy for people to misinterpret it to say a lot of things it doesn't.  "Liberal" or "conservative" measures are based on statistics of deviation from the norm in voting patterns, rather than derived from any specific ideological content of the votes themselves.  The model assumes that Republicans are on average more conservative and Democrats more liberal. And so if a Democrat votes a lot like a Republican, he's relatively conservative.  Ron Paul voted extremely differently from the average Democrat, even if sometimes for socially libertarian reasons where he was the only one to vote that way, so that contributes to him being placed as the most conservative.

This article by Sean Trende does a good job explaining the basics of the scores.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/11/what_has_made_congress_more_polarized.html

[bagelman]

I don't understand how Pelosi, the wealthiest member of Congress today, could be left of Bernie Sanders. Was she more liberal back then?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

RAWN PAUL

[Perlen vor den Schweinen]

I don't understand how Pelosi, the wealthiest member of Congress today, could be left of Bernie Sanders. Was she more liberal back then?

We do have to keep in mind that the reason Bernie Sanders first won election to Congress on being more pro-gun than the incumbent Republican. Positions like that probably put him closer to the center than Pelosi.

[MAINEiac4434]

I don't understand how Pelosi, the wealthiest member of Congress today, could be left of Bernie Sanders. Was she more liberal back then?

She was the founder of the Progressive Caucus.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Although this scoring system is good I vastly prefer the DW-Nominate scores which have been calculated for every single congress, as they're scoring system compromises of 2, rather than 1, dimensions: https://voteview.com/congress/house?congress=115

[smoltchanov]

https://legacy.voteview.com/Is_John_Kerry_A_Liberal.htm

Every congressperson and Senator between the 75th and 107th congresses ranked in terms of liberalism; a a score of 0 is the most moderate, a score of -1.000 is the most liberal and a score of 1.000 is the most conservative.

In case you’re wondering, the most liberal congressperson was William Meyer of Vermont, who served one term from 1959 to 1961. The most conservative is Ron Paul.

Good find. Though i have found it about 10 years ago. The similar info for every Congress may now be found on www.voteview.com pages.