October 26, 2009
Conservatives Top Liberals, Moderates as Top Ideological Group
Conservatives continue to outnumber moderates and liberals in the American populace in 2009, confirming a finding that Gallup first noted in June. Forty percent of Americans describe their political views as conservative, 36% as moderate, and 20% as liberal. This marks a shift from 2005 through 2008, when moderates were tied with conservatives as the most prevalent group.
Let's keep those percentages in mind the next time we see a heavily-slanted poll that significantly under-samples Republicans and over-samples Democrats.
It's a shame that a lot of 'em stayed home on Nov. 4, 2008.
BTW, don't confuse "conservative" with "Republican".
Posted by: Diogenes Online at October 26, 2009 10:00 AMRemember though, the staff at the NYT generally considers itself to be moderate.
Posted by: kevin at October 26, 2009 10:45 AMIt is a shame, Diogenes, but not a surprise, as there was no conservative candidate for President running on a major party ticket that time. You had the choice between an ultra-liberal Chicago corrupt Democrat, and a slightly liberal Republican who had shown over the years that he had great disdain for the conservative wing of his party.
In football, sometimes when your team is mediocre, you basically toss out everyone and start fresh - it's painful for a couple of years, but if the right people are put in place, you're usually back winning long before you would have otherwise.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, they didn't do that this time, so we're pretty much resigned to a much longer period of mediocrity.
Posted by: Skip at October 26, 2009 03:01 PM
