NEWSFLASH
The Quiz (World’s Smallest Political Quiz)
gets HUGE traffic during presidential campaigns!
That spells opportunity! We can start “engaging conversations” about the virtues of self-government.
- My last report explained why we need a Quiz UPDATE. You’ll see our new questions below!
- In the report before that, we dreamed of a FRESH tool to engage millions in conversations, selling the ideas of self-government. I’ll show you how that dream of Quiz Engagements is NOW a reality!
That would be enough for one report but we’ve added two pages to this letter to bring Breaking News…
Our first Quiz Engagement is causing progressives to reconsider their views in a libertarian light!
Let’s get into the exciting details…
The Advocates made the last Quiz update in 1998. Two years later, the presidential candidates were George W. Bush, Al Gore, Ralph Nader, and Harry Browne. What were the issues?
- By DC beltway standards, the budget was “balanced.”
- 9/11 hadn’t happened, so things like the Patriot Act and Real ID didn’t yet exist.
- Gore campaigned against the Digital Divide – a scheme where big government was going to give everyone dial-up internet access!
The point is, things change. Our tools must change to stay relevant.
It’s time for a Makeover.
It’s time to rip out the pumpkin-colored shag carpet, haul out the harvest gold appliances, and tear down the wood paneling! Out with the old, in with the new.
We gave the entire Advocates for Self-Government organization a 2020 Makeover!
We just…
- Published 3 new Quiz questions (see below) and optimized The Quiz for mobile devices
- Created a User Profile system for users to save and share their results
- Developed a customer journey using character illustrations for each political type
- While we were at it, we gave the website a rebranding and a fresh coat of paint
Why? Because we want to be so “2020 campaign season-friendly” that we break records! Even more important…
We’re tackling the most important initiative since The Advocates put The Quiz online (1996). That would be our Engagements. Two letters ago, our Board Chair explained:
- 40,000 people take The Quiz every month.
- We should have interactive engagements to talk with Quiz-takers.
- These engagements should be tailored to Quiz-takers’ results.
- These engagements should move people towards self-government.
Let me put this all together. Then you can fully appreciate what we’ve been up to.
First, we’ve replaced three questions. The left-right assumptions have shifted on national ID, international trade, and corporate welfare. As I explained in my last letter to you…
It’s important that The Quiz have integrity and produce reliable results.
For one thing, The Quiz is popular in high school and college classrooms. Thousands of students take it each month. We want that to continue and expand.
Moreover, when The Quiz gets shared at a booth or in an online forum, there’s always one person in the crowd that suggests we “pushed” them to a result – that The Quiz is “biased.”
For these reasons…
- We commissioned two econometricians to conduct a “regression analysis.” From that, we determined that those three questions no longer contributed to an accurate result and that the new questions (below) did a better job.
- We also surveyed users. We asked them if the results matched their expectations. Overwhelmingly, they said YES.
* Please share these two points with anyone who suggests that The Quiz is biased.
Here are the three UPDATED questions…
- Government should not target, detain, and deport undocumented workers.
- Taxpayers should NOT be responsible for student loan debt.
- Government should not be responsible for providing healthcare.
I bet you can instantly see it: These questions will resonate better with 2020 voters.
And our makeover plan includes updating the deluxe Quiz cards. As I write this, we’re sending the final design proofs to the printer. I want YOU, our longest time Advocates to…
Be THE FIRST people in the country to get the UPDATED Quiz Cards!
We’ll send you one of these “first edition” cards for each tax-deductible dollar you give. $50 gets 50 cards.
But the Makeover doesn’t stop with a rebranded website and an updated Quiz! It’s this next innovation that really excites us!
We’ve launched The Quiz Engagement Program! I’ve got a lot to tell you about that.
Our first engagement is called the Human Respect Test.
How Does This Engagement Work?
Imagine you’ve just taken The Quiz. Your result is plotted and displayed on the Political Map (insert the Nolan Chart).
But we don’t stop there! There’s an engaging question. At Advocates HQ, our team calls that a “Grabber.” It’s tailored to you, based on your Quiz answers and political type.
When you respond to the Grabber you’ll see new ideas about self-government. You’re “engaged” at the moment when you’re most interested.
But this isn’t merely a set of arguments. You’ll enter…
A Vivid Experience
What else would you expect from a 2020 Makeover?
Your experience will be visual. It’ll be emotional. And it will be a voyage of self-discovery.
When The Advocates put The Quiz online in 1996, online tests were a rare, new concept. Not anymore! Why are there so many self-surveys now? Their power comes from the fact that the Quiz-taker learns something about themself.
Our research has shown that people are wired towards values commonly associated with where they land on the
Political Map. Their temperament and life experiences create a “political persona.”
People who click the Grabber for the Human Respect Test will discover their political character in the form of a Comic Book Hero!
Do you think people will want to learn what comic book hero they are?
By making this a visual, self-discovery experience, Quiz-takers should be both better engaged and more likely to share The Quiz. Imagine them sharing it directly with their friends or through social media, thanks to this fun new approach.
From there, we’ll invite each Quiz-taker on a soul-searching, Socratic journey.
The Respectful Approach
Emerging research demonstrates that a technique called Moral Reframing makes a message more persuasive. Simply put, we’ll speak to Quiz-takers in their moral language.
You want our self-government message to be as convincing as possible, right?
This journey will graciously and gradually connect Quiz-takers with fresh ideas like…
- Voluntary systems are respectful, while…
- Coercive systems rely on contradictions that are at odds with Right vs. Wrong.
Consider a Progressive person having just completed The Quiz. She values compassion, equality, and social justice. She often frames political issues in the language of “oppressor vs. oppressed.” Can we speak her moral language?
She wants to extend healthcare to all, especially the poor. That usually means increasing taxes, especially for the rich.
Of course, her personal values would never permit her to grab a gun and go seize someone else’s property. There’s a disconnect because, politically, she’s quite willing to abandon her personal moral code. She delegates the weapon-wielding and theft to agents of the State.
Can we warmly and even entertainingly appeal to her true values
and help her connect the dots?
After all, aren’t compassion, justice, and concern for the poor GOOD things?
Our first engagement, the Human Respect Test, respectfully engages not only progressives, but also conservatives, moderates, libertarians, and even authoritarians.
We want to help each of them to see, in a captivating and non-threatening fashion that…
- In their day-to-day actions, they respect the happiness of others…
- BUT there’s a disconnect between their individual values and their political behaviors.
- Every day, they respect their neighbors – except election day, when they support coercion.
If we could show them that disconnect and successfully cause them to openly question their political actions, even reverse course, would you want that?
What if I told you that was ALREADY starting to happen?
We’re just a few days into this process. Let’s consider the Quiz-takers who score Left-progressive. They engage with the Human Respect Test, and so far…
More than 2/3rds move to endorsing the voluntary position!
I really want you to understand what just happened. First, we surveyed their positions in The Quiz. Next, they landed in the progressive sector of the Political Map. Then, they experienced our first engagement, the Human Respect Test. The result? They reversed course!
One of these progressives took to the popular online discussion forum, Reddit, to explain their “conversion”…
I wasn’t sure how a progressive opinion would be viewed through a libertarian lens, but I got 100% on the human respect score. I could see the point [and] it [has] me thinking…
Could some kind of “voluntary tax selection” process allow us to choose what we pay for? I would pay for social programs and schools. I would choose rehab programs over the war on drugs and prisons. I’d choose to pay social workers over cops.
I’m genuinely asking, because what we’ve got now just ain’t working.
Now, you can experience the Human Respect Test too!
But BEFORE you go try it, I have one more important point to make. These exciting new improvements didn’t happen by accident. We needed a skilled Makeover Team. I secured the talents of…
- A full-stack developer
- A graphic designer
- An experienced libertarian writer
- An illustrator
- An integrated marketing communications specialist {insert a makeover team image?}
You can vividly see the results of their work when you visit our website!
But I’m looking at their invoices right now.
And the work isn’t quite finished. Every new website comes with little things that need enhancement and fixing. Those tiny items are the difference between success and failure during the upcoming campaign season.
We know the names for 2020: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Jo Jorgensen. We know the issues, so we have the right questions on our famous Quiz. But will we maximize the opportunities that come in a Presidential election cycle to…
- Help people discover where they’re at on the Political Map?
- Engage them on a vivid journey of self-discovery?
- Expose them to the powerful message of persuasion over coercion?
Will we have the capacity to deliver? Will you help us take full advantage of the election season opportunity?
Right now, we’re printing the first batch of new Quiz cards.
I’ll send you one card for every dollar you donate. $100 equals 100 cards.
When you make your tax-deductible contribution, you’ll be amongst the first handful of people in the U.S. to have these new Quiz cards!
Our online store won’t have them for weeks. But you can have them in a few days! Show them to friends!
Thank you for helping us with our updated Mission to equip people to understand, embrace, and advocate the values of self-government.
Mike Sertic, President
Advocates for Self-Government
P.S. Our Advocates Makeover includes an updated Quiz, a sharp, refreshed website, and our first Quiz Engagement. Numbers are just coming in on the Human Respect Test, and they’re impressive. 68% of users are choosing respect over coercion. 440 people signed up to join our email list in just the first week! Of course, we want you to check it out. But your financial support is needed to maximize our 2020 election season opportunities.
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