GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

UPDATED: USA Still a Solid Center/Right Nation

by

UPDATE: AllahPundit notes that this level of conservative self-identification is “back to same level as post-9/11.”  Interesting.  Perhaps a one-night stand with Obama was enough to give America The Hangover Of The Century?

STILL. From Gallup today:

PRINCETON, NJ — The increased conservatism that Gallup first identified among Americans last June persisted throughout the year, so that the final year-end political ideology figures confirm Gallup’s initial reporting: conservatives (40%) outnumbered both moderates (36%) and liberals (21%) across the nation in 2009.

More broadly, the percentage of Americans calling themselves either conservative or liberal has increased over the last decade, while the percentage of moderates has declined.  [GP Ed. Note: So much for Obama being “post-partisan” and a “uniter”, eh?]

<..>

Thus far in 2009, Gallup has found an average of 36% of Americans considering themselves Democratic, 28% Republican, and 37% independent. When independents are pressed to say which party they lean toward, 51% of Americans identify as Democrats, 39% as Republicans, and only 9% as pure independents.

Ideological tendencies by leaned party affiliation are very similar to those of straight partisan groups.  However, it is worth noting the views of pure independents — a group usually too small to analyze in individual surveys but potentially important in deciding elections. Exactly half of pure independents describe their views as moderate, 30% say they are conservative, and 17% liberal.

Conservative Republicans hold the mainstream views in America.  The governing coalition in the US has been, since 1980, Conservative Republicans, Conservative Democrats, Conservative-Leaning Independents.  That all adds up to the magic 40% Conservative.  Then all you need is two swing 11% moderate Independents and you have your governing coalition.

Liberals had their wad shot in 2008.  Now the Conservative Governing Coalition of America is coming back and uniting around our Founding Principles.  Obama had better wake up and realize he ain’t the Premier of the United Soviet States of America anymore.

The problem of course is that liberals have infested the academic and media worlds and they whine, shriek and holler louder than the other 79% of America.  We need to change that.  NOW.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Comments

  1. But that doesn’t mean America isn’t more liberal today than it was twenty years ago. Gay Marriage, though still not having a durable voting majority behind it, is much more accepted and mainstream than it was in the 80’s. Ideas that were once considered liberal, like civil unions, become moderate ideas and sometimes even slip further to the scale to conservative idea. Though that might only apply to some social issues, economic ideas might not have such a sliding from one spectrum to another effect.

    I honestly think that poll isn’t wholly accurate either, they should have scored people on a series and issues. I might consider myself a moderate but to others I be a liberal. But that is how it goes with polls, they can all be punctured.

  2. Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty put it this way: “Marriage inequality is a civil rights, political, social, moral and religious issue.”

    He covered all the bases, except one: It’s a constitutional issue as well.

    Robert Levy . . .he concludes with:

    One would hope, in the coming months and years, that more enlightened federal and state legislators will have the courage and decency to resist morally abhorrent and constitutionally suspect restrictions based on sexual orientation. Gay couples are entitled to the same legal rights and the same respect and dignity accorded to all Americans.

    Robert A. Levy is chairman of the Cato Institute.

    Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/01/07/2010-01-07_the_moral_and_constitutional_case_for_a_right_to_gay_marriage.html#ixzz0bwm8vQRn

  3. Gay marriage is not a litmus test for liberality or compassion. People who support gay marriage are not more evolved than those who oppose it. People who oppose gay marriage are not dragging their knuckles across the ground waiting for enlightenment. There are good reasons to oppose gay marriage.

    I think that Hillary is the best candidate for this political climate and would have the most solid support. The left-wing were idiots when they overthrew the Democratic party with their wildly sexist and ageist campaign to defeat Hillary. There are those who hate Hillary with a vitriolic passion, but I think most of the country would breathe a sigh of relief to have a competent, intelligent leader who has a “don’t mess with us” attitude toward our enemies.

  4. Bruce, I hate to say this, but I’m coming to the conclusion that most American voters are poorly informed, sorely mistaken and lazy to the point of negligence when it comes to exercising the OBLIGATION to vote wisely. Maybe Hamilton had it right: we shouldn’t trust the voters with the levers of govt.

    Whether people think themselves conservative, liberal or moderate isn’t as important as their knowledge of how our democracy works and the role they should have in its operation. Frankly, I’d take a well informed, thoughtful liberal any day to the garden variety DailyKos-sack that litters the blog-o-sphere.

    I think our public schools are mostly to blame for today’s illiteracy of civics –I think expanding the base of voters and attracting the laziest of voters isn’t the right way to conduct business. I’d like to see a stiff civics test mandatory for anyone exiting high school… pass it or you don’t get to vote. And we need to repeal the Motor Voter law… worst legislation ever. Well, maybe not the worst –it’s only Obama’s 1st year.

  5. “So much for Obama being “post-partisan” and a “uniter”, eh?]”

    What does this mean? Do you really imagine that a truly unifying, post-partisan president would somehow cause a shift in the percentages of liberal, or conservative, or moderate people? How would that work?

    These labels are incredibly plastic in modern American society. What was radically liberal earlier in my lifetime, is touted as core conservatism today. And different people track these changes at different rates, such that it is basically impossible to know what any particular person means by these words unless you really follow up with specifics.

    The only relatively stable sense of what these terms might mean is the psychological sense. Conservatives being those who tend to be more comfortable with traditional views that they might have grown up with, whereas liberals are those who seek new and better understandings – it is more complicated than that, but those are the types of differences that have some stable meaning. And, once again, I dont see how any president would change the proportions of people who had such instincts.

  6. I love this logic.

    Gallup says:
    “51% of Americans identify as Democrats, 39% as Republicans, and only 9% as pure independents.”

    Bruce says:
    “Conservative Republicans hold the mainstream views in America”

  7. Bruce posts this:
    “conservatives (40%) outnumbered both moderates (36%) and liberals (21%) across the nation in 2009.”

    Tano then replies with non-sequetors.

    Bruce: It’s shown here the sky is blue.
    Tano: Oh yeah? Well the same people said the grass is green.

    I would ask that Tano address the post, but that would be a change for his constantly hiding when tough questions are asked.

  9. your use of CAPS implies that your CONCLUSION is OBVIOUS from the DATA.

    i don’t buy it. 51% of respondents identify as dems; 40% identify as conservatives. this inconsistency alone undermines your conclusion. this poll is so ambiguous and inconclusive it serves as a rorschach–it says the observer than it does about the american public. to the extent its ambiguities can be resolved, i think it shows that either traditional ideological labels (cons/lib/mod), or political labels (dem/repub/ind), or both, are losing their descriptive power.

  10. And Tano once again demonstrates the complete stupidity, inanity, and bigotry of liberals.

    Conservatives being those who tend to be more comfortable with traditional views that they might have grown up with, whereas liberals are those who seek new and better understandings – it is more complicated than that, but those are the types of differences that have some stable meaning.

    In other words, Tano says that anything you grew up with is wrong, and that, as an adult, your failure to reject those things in favor of “new and better understandings” makes you ignorant.

    For example, this is what Tano and his fellow liberals are saying these days:

    Raising the age of consent is a veiled attempt to assert conservative moral values on youth, queer and youth-led groups told Senators today.

    The Senate’s legal affairs committee is studying a Harper government bill that would raise the age of consent from 14 to 16. It will almost certainly pass — no political party has opposed it — but queer and youth-led groups came out Feb 22 to insist on their sexual freedom.

    The proposed changes will have a disproportionate impact on gays, said Richard Hudler of the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario.

    “My first lover was 17 years older than me. And this is common [among gay people],” he said.

    Because, as we know, the idea that children should not be having sex with adults is a concept that we grew up with and, as a consequence, should be rejected in favor of Tano’s “new and better understandings” about the importance of sex with children.

    Liberalism requires the mindset of the spoiled teenager — you are the smartest person in the world, everyone else is an idiot, adults are stupid and should put you in charge.

  12. Liberalism requires the mindset of the spoiled teenager — you are the smartest person in the world, everyone else is an idiot, adults are stupid and should put you in charge.

    To North Dallas Thirty… if I may add to your thought: If you’re not a liberal when young, you don’t have a heart. If you’re still a liberal when you grow up, you don’t have a brain (loose paraphrase of Sir Winston Churchill).

  13. What was radically liberal earlier in my lifetime, is touted as core conservatism today.

    Aye. And what used to be traitorous communism is now considered mainstream democrats. What used to be deplorable racism is now considered mainstream democrats. What used to be disgusting anti-Semitism is now considered mainstream democrats.

  14. liberals are those who seek new and better understandings

    I am all ears so lay just ONE new and better understanding being sought by liberals on me.

    Thanks.

    Oh, yeah, could you explain how we know it is a “new” understanding?

    Thanks.

    Oh, yeah, could you explain how we determine if it is a “better” understanding?

    Thanks.

    Oh, yeah, could you explain what constitutes an “understanding”?

    Thanks.

    I’ll leave the light on.

  18. 12. That’s because he didn’t grow up in the 70s. I hit Wesleyan University and became a conservative so fast people heads spun. Liberalism back then was an exercise in near total moral decay, bigotry, and elitism. Doesn’t seem like much has changed. (I will refrain from observation on libertarians…)

  19. ooooooo, AE, you showed me. i accidentally typed “conservative” instead of “republican.” it doesn’t make me ignorant, it makes you anal-retentive. obviously, my error didn’t distract you from understanding my point, and you even apparently agree with me. so your entire comment was really just an opportunity to call me names. you give an ugly and childish voice to conservatism.

  21. liberals are those who seek new and better understandings

    Classical liberals – Yes, absolutely.

    Left-liberals – i.e., LEFTISTS who expropriated the prestige of classical liberalism and then destroyed it: No way.

    As I said in another post recently: Leftism appeals to the emotions of the ignorant and those who actually don’t love freedom. It appeals to their desire to be taken care of by society’s authority structure (political leaders as Mommy/Daddy figures) and simultaneously, their desire to appear morally superior as they go about it.

  23. Actually chad, while I recognize that there are liberal Republicans (something Bruce never denied), I dont agree with your erroneous point, which was that, “it cuts both ways.”

    The poll clearly shows that it does not, at least not anywhere near equally. The poll shows that the largest group in America consider themselves conservaties, and the tiniest minority are the 21% of morons, retards, and Jay-Walking All Stars who subscribe to your fascist, thoroughly discredited ideology.

  24. ae, bruce’s comment–and my response–were qualitative, not quantitive, hence the conspicuous lack of numbers in comments 15 and 16. i made no argument regarding the relative numbers of “conservative dems” or “liberal repubs”. so your claim that my argument is erroneous is off-the-mark. moreover, your assertion that there must necessarily be more conservative dems because more people identify as conservatives is ludicrous on its face. but even if conservative dems do outnumber liberal repubs, you and bruce assume too much by suggesting that those dems are part of a conservative governing coalition. the poll says absolutely nothing about how party or ideological identification is correlated with actual voting patterns.

  25. Chad, You misunderstand. When I say it doesn’t cut both ways, I am referring directly to the numerical findings of the poll.

    The poll found that 40% of Americans are conservatives (be they Democrat, Republican or whatever) and only 21% of the country want to be associated with your fascist ideology.

    40>21

    remedial math.

  27. Chad,

    they tell us that only a fool would then REVERSE those numbers and claim that despite there being twice as many conservatives, that there are actually more liberal republicans than there are conservative democrats.

    But we already know that to be false dont we? The way Obama and the rest of your deeply dishonest party all pretend to be conservative when running for office!