Exit Poll Media Shocker: Conservatives Still Outnumber Liberals

NewsBusters ^ | November 5, 2008 | Noel Sheppard

[Sopater]

As the election postmortems continue, it seems a metaphysical certitude media representatives will cast Tuesday's results as indicative of a continued national shift to the left they believe began when the Democrats took over Congress in 2006.

However, the exit polls don't reflect such a shift at all.

In fact, there has been virtually no change to the percentage of folks claiming to be liberal or conservative in their political ideology since 2004.

Here are the relevant numbers (2004 here and 2008 here):

• 21 percent claimed to be liberal in 2004 versus 22 percent in 2008
• 34 percent claimed to be conservative in both 2004 and 2008

Interesting, wouldn't you agree? If the past two elections were indeed a reflection of a huge leftward shift in the national ethos, shouldn't there be a serious increase in the number of folks that view themselves as liberal, and a decrease in conservatives?

[IceAge]

When will everyone realize that people “LIE” to these pollsters?
They will say anything when put on the spot with questions that make them uncomfortable.

I don’t believe the results of these polls.
The election is the only poll that matters.

[exinnj]

“A majority of Americans consider themselves conservative.”
This is a laughable statement, whoever it is coming from, Rush Limbaugh, etc. Most of the people who call themselves a concervative have no clue what it is. Best evidence of that was produced on November 4th.

[DouglasKC]

34 percent claimed to be conservative in both 2004 and 2008

Well both Dole and McCain claimed to be conservatives. But denial is more than just a river in Egypt.

[bmwcyle]

The ones who consider themselves conservative and voted for Obama are women.

[AC-130 Gunship]

"The collective IQ of America is dropping every year."

Proof: The typical 0bamaniac waiting to cast their vote on November 4, 2008:

[longtermmemmory]

they voted absentee.

(like the nursing homes in FL, no joke)

[longtermmemmory]

those are the same women who vote to allow homosexual marriage. (usually single)

[bmwcyle]

Rush gave the figures for homosexual marriage. White people 65% voted for it. Black people voted over 70% against it. Out of the White people that voted for it, women were the problem. On the moral issues Black people mostly voted correctly. It is too bad they didn’t have a conservative black to vote for in this election.

[AC-130 Gunship]

Indulge me...

Metaphorically, these are THE typical 0bama-voters ;-)

[NVDave]

All entitlements become a huge component of the government.

Medicare, as originally enacted, was supposed to be no more than tens of billions/year by the year 2000.

Security/defense spending is discretionary, and can be reduced at any time.

Entitlements just go up, up, up - entitlements are the single largest component of government spending today - and they cannot be reduced easily, if at all.

For any true conservative, Medicare Part D was the end of any claim by the Bush administration that they were “conservative.”

As to the poster’s claim: Most of the “security” spending in the Bush budget is a complete boondoggle while delivering no security. It is nothing more than pork-barrel spending under the rubric of “security.”

[Poincare]

If the past two elections were indeed a reflection of a huge leftward shift in the national ethos, shouldn't there be a serious increase in the number of folks that view themselves as liberal, and a decrease in conservatives?

In 2006 a relatively large percentage of the Dem winners were conservative Dems. In the GOP a number of RINOs (Chafee, for example,) lost. Both parties moved to the right, but the GOP lost possession of the ball while conservatism improved its field position. I haven't looked closely at 2008 yet.

[Sopater]

Both parties moved to the right, but the GOP lost possession of the ball while conservatism improved its field position. I haven't looked closely at 2008 yet.

I haven't looked closely at 2008 yet either, but it's quite clear that the executive office has moved much further to the left.

[driftless2]

"I.Q"

I don't think the I.Q. is dropping, but I do think Americans are on average more ignorant than they ever were. I would bet most people who voted for Obama have little idea what he stands for. Many were simply voting for Dems because they always vote for Dems. Many were voting their against the Republican Party. Their perception of the Republican Party, as it's image has been vilified by the media, is that it is responsible for everything bad that's happened in the last eight years. They will very soon find out that utopia has not arrived in the form of Obama.

[driftless2]

"call themselves conservatives"

And there are the people, like my elderly parents, who are hard-core, Republican-hating Democrats who actually are socially conservative. My near ninety father is a WWII vet and hates every lib social innovation of the last forty years. But he hates Republicans more (FDR is his hero) and he and my mother simply cannot draw the connection between Dem politicians and destructive social behavior.

So we have people like my parents who think partial birth abortion is murder (as devout Catholics they're strongly against any kind of abortion), yet eagerly voted for Obama. Irrational, but that's how many people vote.

[Kevmo]

Thanks for posting this and the related article. It seems apparent that there’s a growing rift between those folks who call themselves conservative and those who actually are conservative.