Posted on 01/07/2010 7:18:21 AM PST by EternalVigilance
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.
Since 1992, there have been only two other years -- 2003 and 2004 -- in which the average percentage of conservatives nationwide outnumbered moderates, and in both cases, it was by two percentage points (in contrast to the current four points).
"The proportion of independents calling themselves "moderate" held relatively steady in the mid-40s over the last decade, while the proportion of Republican and Democratic moderates dwindled."
The rather abrupt three-point increase between 2008 and 2009 in the percentage of Americans calling themselves conservative is largely owing to an increase -- from 30% to 35% -- in the percentage of political independents adopting the label. Over the same period, there was only a slight increase in professed conservatism among Republicans (from 70% to 71%) and no change among Democrats (at 21%).
The 2009 findings come from an aggregate of 21 separate Gallup and USA Today/Gallup surveys, including nearly 22,000 interviews. The 1992 to 2008 trends also represent thousands of interviews compiled for each year. Thus, the margins of sampling error around the individual estimates are less than one percentage point.
(Excerpt) Read more at gallup.com ...
No, Alan Keyes didn’t “decide to form his own party.” We formed our own party, and he liked it enough to affiliate, just like lots of other good folks.
As usual, the information you present to FReepers is skewed and deceptive.
whoopdeedo
this means nothing unless these self described conservates:
A. Go out and vote
B. Stop voting for their “conservative Democrat” because THERE ARE NO MORE CONSERVATIVE DEMS
C. Dont vote third party you just enable Dems
More baloney. If the Republicans want to nominate her that's their call. I've done nothing more than state the fact that I couldn't support her because I disagree with her on a couple of fundamental non-negotiable policy points. You see, "ansel12," I'm an Independent, and I don't need you to think for me.
Alan Keyes after failing to take over two other parties, and you being a long time Alan Keyes worshiper, and suddenly you form a boutique third party with Alan Keyes as your presidential candidate, all of these events taking place over a period of months, I guess things just fell into place for the two of you.
Who do you think will be your presidential candidate for 2012, do you think that Alan Keyes has a chance?
Why are you so fixated on Alan Keyes?
Actually, I am the independent, for God's sake man, you are a party chairman, that makes you a political hack of the highest degree, you and Howard Dean actually run presidential campaigns for your own political parties.
You also dedicate much of your party efforts on behalf of Alan Keyes, to stopping Governor Palin, just like Howard Dean.
A total misrepresentation of reality on your part. Nothing new there.
I’m so glad this thread got hijaked. :(
Anyone care to repost this this story so we can actuall discuss what is an important political development?
Thanks titey! I was just about to post the exact same qualitative analysis by just looking at the plots, and then saw you confirmed it quantitatively!
Not only do the trends/slopes tell a disturbing story, the 0.168 correlation for "conservatives" shows none of the conviction month-to-month indicative of a true, principled conservative.
To me, this says the "conservative" label is being interpreted differently today from Kirk/Burke/Buckley.
Just ignore him and go on. I’ve had to do that on multiple threads with this poster over the course of the last year or so.
Do you remember some months ago the numbers that came out which showed that in ALL FIFTY STATES that there are more self-identified conservatives than self-identified liberals?
These sorts of polls should do two things:
1) Fill us with hope.
2) Teach us clear lessons about the kind of representation we’re getting as conservatives in this political system.
Once folks begin to look at number two very carefully and begin to understand what the core problems really are, on a principled and a practical basis, the fixes begin to present themselves to ones mind.
You mean like here?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2423086/posts
Or in the one just above this one.
Here? http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2423051/posts
"Actually, I am the independent, for God's sake man, you are a party chairman, that makes you a political hack of the highest degree, you and Howard Dean actually run presidential campaigns for your own political parties.
You also dedicate much of your party efforts on behalf of Alan Keyes, to stopping Governor Palin, just like Howard Dean."
Quit acting like a troll.
"Actually, I am the independent, for God's sake man, you are a party chairman, that makes you a political hack of the highest degree, you and Howard Dean actually run presidential campaigns for your own political parties. You also dedicate much of your party efforts on behalf of Alan Keyes, to stopping Governor Palin, just like Howard Dean."
So now the obvious question is: "What are we to do about it?"
My answer would be two-fold: education and consolidation.
Conservatives need to make the real effort to get out and educate their fellow citizens, rather than just propagandise them. We need to focus on (re)teaching Americans the philosophy of our Founders, and the underlying basis upon which it was built. We need to teach our fellow Americans how to think and apply those philosophies to today's issues. We need to get off of simply mouthing bumper sticker slogans and our focus on theatrical sideline issues like "Obama's birth certificate" and so forth. Deal with real issues that are solid, not theatrics that rely upon conspiracy theory and innuendo.
Likewise, we need to consolidate. Psychologically, people respond to leadership. That's a proven fact. When conservatives dither around and fight each other, multiplying themselves into two dozen little pissant third parties and so forth, we present an image to the rest of the country - you know, all the non-FReepers out there, the people who aren't politically astute or active, but whose votes count for as much as ours - that we don't know what we're on about, that we're just a bunch of squawking losers who can't even get it together to put forward what we believe.
Splitterism undermines our ideological credibility. If we all got on the ball - and this most logically will take place when conservatives organise to take over the GOP and kick the RINOs out, something that could happen in as little as two years, if we were serious about it - we would make converts to our cause and would be much more likely to triumph.
The time to fool around with bumper sticker slogans and third-party ego trips is NOT now. Do that junk when we have the leisure to not be serious about preserving what's left of this country. Until then, knock it off!
The first answer to that question is for conservatives to quit doing the stupid stuff that got them where they are. Which is without the representation their numbers deserve.
Quit trashing my thread, troll.
The thread belongs to all of us.
Or more properly, the thread belongs to Jim Robinson.
Don't try to be our mothers.
Sounds to me like that’s what you’re doing. Was I addressing you?
That is what trolling is. You repeatedly say that I am lying or misleading, but then you will not point out the lie, that is purely making personal attacks (or trolling).
How about this one, you said that it was untrue, what is untrue about it?
"Actually, I am the independent, for God's sake man, you are a party chairman, that makes you a political hack of the highest degree, you and Howard Dean actually run presidential campaigns for your own political parties. You also dedicate much of your party efforts on behalf of Alan Keyes, to stopping Governor Palin, just like Howard Dean."
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