And that's the right period to look at why? Because it fits with your conclusions? I'm looking at election results. From 1930 on. Wow, the conclusion is rather different. I'm looking at election results. From 2006 on. Again, a rather different conclusion. Yes, Reagan was a hell of a politician, and had the benefit of following a president widely considered to be a failure. Hmm, what's the modern parallel of that situation? Democrats are going to be running against Dubya for the next 30 years. He's the Republican Carter. barfo
30 years isn't a long enough snapshot? From 1960 to 1980, Democrats controlled both houses of congress and 12 years of presidency. I'd say the situation was reverse back then.
Exactly my point. There isn't anything permanent here. Just because the Repubs had a couple of good (for them) decades, doesn't mean that the next few decades will be Republican decades. Given the current state of the R party, I'd say it is looking highly unlikely that their run will continue, but we'll see. barfo
Not for "global warming". We need at least 50 years for that, but only if you disrgard the past 11 years.
If I recall the number properly--and I'm not sure that I am correct--is that 40% of the population described themselves as "conservative" and 20% described themselves as "liberal".
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/52602 Conservatives Now Outnumber Liberals in All 50 States, Says Gallup Poll Monday, August 17, 2009 By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief (CNSNews.com) - Self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in all 50 states of the union, according to the Gallup Poll. At the same time, more Americans nationwide are saying this year that they are conservative than have made that claim in any of the last four years. In 2009, 40% percent of respondents in Gallup surveys that have interviewed more than 160,000 Americans have said that they are either “conservative” (31%) or “very conservative” (9%). That is the highest percentage in any year since 2004. Only 21% have told Gallup they are liberal, including 16% who say they are “liberal” and 5% who say they are “very liberal.” Thirty-five percent of Americans say they are moderate. During Republican President George W. Bush’s second term, the number of self-identified conservatives as measured by Gallup dropped, riding at a low of 37% as recently as last year. According to new data released by Gallup on Friday, conservatives outnumber liberals in all 50 states--including President Obama’s home state of Illinois--even though Democrats have a significant advantage over Republicans in party identification in 30 states. “In fact, while all 50 states are, to some degree, more conservative than liberal (with the conservative advantage ranging from 1 to 34 points), Gallup's 2009 party ID results indicate that Democrats have significant party ID advantages in 30 states and Republicans in only 4,” said an analysis of the survey results published by Gallup. “Despite the Democratic Party's political strength-- seen in its majority representation in Congress and in state houses across the country--more Americans consider themselves conservative than liberal,” said Gallup’s analysis. “While Gallup polling has found this to be true at the national level over many years, and spanning recent Republican as well as Democratic presidential administrations, the present analysis confirms that the pattern also largely holds at the state level,” said Gallup. “Conservatives outnumber liberals by statistically significant margins in 47 of the 50 states, with the two groups statistically tied in Hawaii, Vermont, and Massachusetts.” Massachusetts, Vermont and Hawaii are the most liberal states, even though conservatives marginally outrank liberals even there. In Massachusetts, according to Gallup, 30% say they are conservative and 29% say they are liberal, a difference that falls within the margin of error for the state. In Vermont, 29% say they are conservative and 28% say they are liberal, which also falls within the survey’s margin of error for the state. In Hawaii, 29% say they are conservative and 24% say they are liberal, which falls within the margin of error for that state. In one non-state jurisdiction covered by the survey, liberals did outnumber conservatives. That was Washington, D.C., where 37% said they were liberal, 35% said they were moderate and 23% said they were conservative. Even in New York and New Jersey, conservatives outnumber liberals by 6 percentage points, according to Gallup. In those states, 32% say they are conservative and 26% say they are liberal. In Connecticut, conservatives outnumber liberals by 7 points, 31% to 24%. Alabama is the state that comes closest to a conservative majority. In that state, according to Gallup, 49% say they are conservative and 15% say they are liberal. In President Obama’s home state of Illinois, conservatives outnumber liberals, 35% to 23%. Gallup's results were derived from interviewing 160,236 American adults between Jan. 2, 2009 and June 30, 2009. Even though conservatives outnumber liberals in all 50 states, in 21 of these states self-identified moderates outnumber conservatives, and in 4 states the percentage saying they are conservative and the percentage saying they are moderate is exactly the same. The two states with the highest percentage of self-identified moderates are Hawaii and Rhode Island, where 43% say they are moderate. For a ranking of all 50 states by the advantage that self-identified conservatives have over self-identified liberals see the Gallup analysis here.
The Gallup Poll here: http://www.gallup.com/poll/122333/Political-Ideology-Conservative-Label-Prevails-South.aspx#2
Do you ever think part of that may be because for the last 20 years the GOP has been bashing the term liberal to mean something it really doesn't? So people are "scared" to associate with that term? I can immediately dismiss a poll that is telling me that Hawaii and Mass. have more people as "conservative" than "liberal". Please. I would suggest that perhaps they need to rethink how they are issuing this poll and the wording involved.
Founded by a rich redneck family, it originally funded some despicable causes. Through 6 decades it has adopted more liberal leanings, and in 2004 became a "non-profit" in order to be able to legally spend part of it's enormous budget on lobbying, through the Pew Trusts. From wiki: The Trusts, a single entity, is the successor to, and sole beneficiary of, seven charitable funds established between 1948 and 1979 by the adult children of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew. The four co-founders were J. Howard Pew, Mary Ethel Pew, Joseph N. Pew, Jr., and Mabel Pew Myrin. The Trusts is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with an office in Washington, D.C.. Joseph Pew and his heirs were politically conservative. The J. Howard Pew Freedom Trust had as its mission to "acquaint the American people with 'the evils of bureaucracy' and 'the values of a free market' and 'to inform our people of the struggle, persecution, hardship, sacrifice and death by which freedom of the individual was won.'" Joseph N. Pew, Jr. called Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, "a gigantic scheme to raze U.S businesses to a dead level and debase the citizenry into a mass of ballot-casting serfs."[2] Most of the early beneficiaries were conservative organizations such as the John Birch Society, the American Liberty League, and the American Enterprise Institute,[3][4] although the beneficiaries also included a cancer research institute, a museum, higher education, the American Red Cross, and historically black colleges. For many years, the Trusts tended to fund charities and conservative causes located in Philadelphia. In 2004, the Pew Trusts changed from a foundation into a nonprofit. It can now raise funds freely and devote up to 5% of its budget to lobbying the public sector. According to the 2007 Annual Report, five of the 12 persons currently serving on the Board for the Trusts are named Pew, including the Chair. from the Wall Street Journal: http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110006499 Although it has changed colors and objectives over time, it is obviously one of the biggest lobbyists in America and can never be mistaken for being unbiased. It exists solely to influence people to accept it's biased views.
I'm a Liberal. I don't care what anyone else thinks about that. Now why would some small minority of people be able to smear the term so the majority won't want to be associated with the term?
The problem with this poll is that Republicans have spent 30 years fairly successfully demonizing the word "liberal", so people tend not to identify with that label anymore. I'm skeptical you'd get the same results if you used less loaded words, or identified people based on what they believe in, rather than how they label what they believe in. barfo Edit: apparently I type too slow, as yakbladder already made this point.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html Pew Research Poll Obama Approval Rating Approve 52% Disapprove 36% Difference 16% It's the second most skewed poll in Obama's favor. Behind that piller of objectivity, CBS. You figure it out.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/16/conservatives-maintain-their-lead-over-liberals/ So liberals are growing at twice the rate of conservatives. Furthermore... What's interesting is that with the massively aging population (no offense Denny) I'd expect to see a great climb in conservatives and then a sudden drop-off at some point.
There are no liberals, clearly. Liberals stormed the 1968 convention and risked getting thrown in jail or getting cracked across the skull with a nightstick. Now they're afraid of a word, "liberal." LOL
from wiki: For the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Gallup was rated 17th out of 23 polling organizations in terms of the precision of its pre-election polls relative to the final results. Not the absolute worst pollster, but close.
Well when that was the GOP talking point for several years, to call everyone a liberal. But more likely an Ivy League liberal or a Mass. liberal or anyone of a number of modifiers.
I'm not sure those who stormed the convention are the same people that Gallup might reach in a survey of suburbia. I'm happy to be known as a liberal, but I can see why joe six-pack would call himself a moderate. barfo
So what? What's the Nazi Party talking points, and who cares? The people polled were given the choice of "moderate" and chose "conservative."
