Illustration by Cody Angell

What defines a political extremist - someone who's far-removed from the so-called political center or someone far-removed from your own politics?

The self-perceived ideological left, right and middle are very individually and geographically subjective. For example, Senator Jim Jeffords received very little backlash from his home state of Vermont for changing his party affiliation from Republican to Independent.

Why? Vermont is a very left-slanted state.

But then the obvious question is, "Why, then, would Vermont elect a Republican in the first place?" Simple: most Vermonters have a different definition of what it means to be a Republican than does the rest of the country. Even before he left the Republican Party, Sen. Jeffords had a liberal take on many issues. He was further to the left than most Republicans, but in his part of the country, Republicans were further to the left in the first place.

Just look at Bernie Sanders, Vermont's only Congressman: he's a registered Independent but also a self-described socialist.

One can only imagine what it means to be a Democrat in that state.

The opposite is generally true for the Deep South. Southern Democrats are historically more conservative than other Democrats around the country. Senators Zell Miller, D-Ga., and John Breaux, D-La., have both sided with President Bush on most economic issues. Both voted for his tax cut, and both were in favor of the Republican version of the economic stimulus bill from last January. Just as in Vermont, the political left and right mean something different in the South.

College campuses are another good example of local ideological distortion. Take UA, for instance. Obviously, a good deal of students couldn't give a crap about politics one way or the other. But out of those who do, a recent poll said 60 percent of UA students defined themselves as left of center and 40 percent said they were right of center.

Does that sound accurate? I'm not so sure.

Just look at the organizational makeup of the campus. From my perspective, the College Republicans are the only right-wing group on campus, but I could probably name about a dozen left-wing groups off the top of my head.

I'm not complaining; don't get me wrong. I'm just trying to make the point that there are a whole lot more liberals on campus than conservatives or they're simply much more boisterous than the other side. It's just a fact that younger people tend to be more liberal than the general population.

It's a little of both. Liberals tend to picket and protest a good deal more than conservatives on your typical day of marches and sit-ins. But I think the 60-40 poll is misleading because most students have a different idea of what it means to be to the right or the left than what the rest of America does. In other words, it may sound strange, but I believe that the average college student has a left-wing slant on what "the middle" is.

For example, a greater percentage of college students would most likely see a pro-life position on abortion - i.e. abortion should be illegal - as an extreme, right-wing point of view, whereas the average American would certainly see it as the view of a conservative - but definitely not an extreme one. The same could be said for a platform of lower corporate taxes and anti-affirmative action.

If it were possible to statistically adjust that poll by the average UA student's perspective on where the middle lies, you'd see the numbers move from 60 percent to about 70-75 percent left in my estimation.

I'm a conservative. The average person would consider me "right of center." But I don't look at myself that way. I don't see my views as "extreme" in any way. I see a lot of the views of my Democrat friends as pretty far out there, and I'm sure they feel the same about many of mine.

Ask yourself this question: Do you find the political views of Ralph Nader extreme? How about Ronald Reagan? Ted Kennedy? Al Gore?

In all likelihood, your answers accurately reflect your own political views.