It seems that the policies of an individual congressman are well-described by a single number, the first dimension of the two-dimensional DW-NOMINATE score. Yay America!
In the study Who is More Liberal, Obama or Clinton?, the authors histogram the DW-NOMINATE score for all members of congress. Their point is to show that Clinton and Obama are statistically identical. Of course, this isn't terribly surprising, since there is a way senators must vote in order to be electable. Funny that I still feel pretty strongly about who I want to win.
It's also interesting to see how well-separated the Democrats and Republicans are. I think the animation (above) showing the parties clustering over the past few years is entertaining.
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