Posted on 06/30/2014 5:12:40 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In the hyper-partisan world of Washington, it's too easy to fall into the trap of being either 100 percent Democrat or an all in Republican. But many Americans struggle to neatly define themselves on this two party spectrum, instead believing in a healthy mix of both liberal and conservative ideological truths to varying degrees.
The Pew Research Center recently conducted a typological study, in which they discovered that most Americans fell within eight distinct political ideologies, outside of the standard two party system our government runs on.
There groups are as follows: the Strong Liberals, who are pretty much what most people would describe as true-blue Democrats – wealthy, educated, and optimists in their belief that government can and should do good to help it's citizens. Slightly less liberal are the Faith and Family Left, socially conservative and racially diverse, but still very liberal in their belief in activist government and social welfare programs. Both these groups would likely describe themselves as solid Democrats.
Groups that are liberal, but might prefer to be called Independents rather than Democrats include the Next Generation Left, a young and educated demographic that is extremely liberal on the social issues, but less supportive of social welfare and generally be okay with Wall Street and corporate growth. Practically the opposite of this, but still considered on-the-fence Democrats are the Hard Pressed Skeptics, the working poor who vote Democratic and believe the government should help people get by, but deeply cynical that government actually understands their struggle.
On the right, the Steadfast Conservatives are described as your typical Tea Party adherent, socially conservative, wary of big government and isolationist, pretty much your Ted Cruzs of the world. This group makes up the Republican base along with Business Conservatives, who differ from their Tea Party brethren in their trust for corporations, especially Wall Street, and belief that immigration can be a good thing. Lastly on the conservative side are the Young Outsiders, who are more likely to describe themselves as Independent despite voting Republican. These are young people who are strongly supportive of liberal social issues, yet hate government activism and are more economically conservative as well.
The last group, identified by Pew as the Bystanders, make up 10 percent of the population, and are the people who choose not to vote and be a part of the political process. Largely apathetic toward government as having impact on their daily lives, this group claims to have little knowledge of political affairs and has an ideology that falls directly in the middle of the spectrum.
Considering this array of political opinion, there's no wonder that many Americans feel less than enthusiastic about voting. For a majority of Americans, an election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, or let's say Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz, is simply an exercise in choosing the least to two evils rather than finding a political voice that actually speaks to what they believe in.
They lumped about three distinct groups into that category.
I’m a Leo.
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Where are the “I vote for free stuff” Democrats?
Yep. Steadfast Conservative here, too. Thanks for the link.
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