Posted on 08/29/2004 5:15:25 PM PDT by Vision Thing
If a person is going to be conservative, doesn't he need to act that way i.e. isn't it true that saying so doesn't make it so?
From Bruce Walker's lips to God's ears.
'Conservative' has different meanings. I consider myself to be both a social and fiscal conservative. Some say if you're social conservative, you're not a conservative at all. Others say that if you're a social conservative, but not a fiscal conservative, you're no conservative at all.
I say, who cares? If more people call themselves conservative than liberal or "I'm too stupid to know what I am", then all is well.
Mens News Daily?
Bingo!! I have a colleague who is quite liberal but who sincerely thinks he's conservative -- because he lives in Ithaca ("The City of Evil").
One reason for these results is probably that the center of the spectrum has moved extremely far to the left over the last fifty years.
That's where I found it. Click on the link for it at the top of the post.
If this IS true... President Bush should be ahead by double digits in most states. Instead he has a lead INSIDE the margin of error. I agree America isn't hospitable to liberals but by no means do conservatives enjoy a cakewalk to victory. The President at the moment is facing a tight re-election bid. Oh I have no doubt of the outcome but for now the numbers are too close for comfort.
But it is also true that people mis-categorize themselves, and there is enough of a feeling out there that "liberal" is a term of opprobrium that people who are in fact liberal do not desribe themselves as such. I know several such people, who say they consider themselves conservative, and who are in fact 100 percent liberal in their political beliefs. If people in the US were in fact conservative in the numbers reflected in this article, we would have a very different government. I think our government is a perfectly accurate reflection of the views of the electorate.
conservative-limited government, low taxes, individual responsibility...liberal-socialist
"I say, who cares? If more people call themselves conservative than liberal or "I'm too stupid to know what I am", then all is well."
I just call myself a conservative libertarian.
I told you so!
I agree. This same Battleground poll was available late in 2000. It essentially said the same thing: America is vastly conservative. I based a lot of hope on it for the Bush vs. Gore election. I was bitterly dissapointed with the actual election results.
You gotta figure all kinds of things went wrong: Overconfidence on Rove's part, the last-minute revelation of Bush's drunk driving arrest, voter fraud.
I don't know what to believe. But the Battleground poll is bipartisan, so it has some legitimacy.
Yeah, its like when pro-gay marriage, and pro-choice Republicans are referred to as 'moderate' by the media, when they are clearly liberal. Though, I guess that may have more to do with media/elite bias.
But anyway, I wish I could take comfort in such studies, but then I remember the immigration-driven demographic shift in the US towards the Democratic party.
Also, that some groups like Hispanics and blacks hold conservative views on things like gay marriage, abortion (and even immigration for black Americans) is irrelevant. Those issues are not vote-deciding issues for them, and they get trumped by other ones as they continue voting for the party that favors gay marriage and abortion on demand.
You'd think that at the very least the influx of 'socially conservative Catholic Hispanics' would inject some social conservatism into the Democratic party, but it definitely has not.
So anyway, I see the trends favoring the Democrats on a natinonal level.
Wow, vivaBush, you've been banned real quick!
Now we need to get these people involved in the process and voting. Good news!
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