Posted on 06/25/2010 3:33:09 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
1. After two election cycles in the political wilderness, conservatives appear to be rallying in advance of the 2010 midterm election.
In new Gallup numbers released this morning, 42 percent of Americans describe themselves as conservative while 35 percent say they are moderates and 20 percent call themselves liberals.
The 42 percent of self-described conservatives would be a record high for Gallup, which has been asking the question since 1992, if the trend continued through the final six months of the year. (The data for the first six months of 2010 was culled from eight national surveys conducted by Gallup.) The last time four in ten Americans (or more) identified themselves as conservatives was 2004 when Republicans re-elected President George W. Bush and made gains in the House and Senate.
The Gallup numbers are not inconsistent with other recent data -- although they do paint a slightly more rosy picture for conservatives than other polls.
In this week's NBC/Wall Street Journal survey, 38 percent of the sample identified as conservative while 36 percent said they were moderates and 23 percent called themselves liberals.
--snip--
4. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is stepping up her profile in a handful of appearances over the next several days, announcing on her Facebook page that she's headlining a trio of events in Texas, Virginia and Georgia.
Palin is also expected to deliver a speech today at the California State Univeristy Stanislaus. The appearance has been the subject of weeks of controversy due to Palin's refusal to state how much she is charging for the speech as well as her initial barring of media from covering the event. (The university has since announced that reporters will be allowed to attend).(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
Spin as they may, it’s hard to look at this as anything but what it is. And I’ve always thought Gallup leaned just a tad to the left—so the numbers could be even better.
I’m hoping for 52%! :)
People changed after the financial disaster in 2008....they got more FISCALLY conservative in their personal lives.
That works on a subconscious level IMO.
“20 percent call themselves liberals. “
Liberals have been “stuck” at 20% forever. This is what makes it particularly galling to have the Senate’s most liberal member elected in 2008 and to have that clown govern with an “I won” attitude and willingness to ride roughshod over what the vast majority of Americans want.
He, Pelosi and Reid do not come close to representing the majority view in a center-right country. But of course, that’s exactly why they are trying to move at light speed to get their agenda enacted before the window of opportunity slams shut in November.
It's gonna be up to folks like us FReepers to find these newly-frocked conservatives and make sure they receive a good edjumuhkashun on that it means to be a conservative!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
20% consider themselves liberal yet they have SO MUCH POWER. They rule education, entertainment and news
If true how come the government consists of far left commies??
My theory has always been that sharper minds are attracted to individual success and innovation that can only be found in the private sector, and not gov’t.
Explains RINOs too.
Of course, public pensions and perks are now far outpacing those rewards since the recession.
Then how in the f*** did the likes of Obama get elected as POTUS less than 2 years ago?
He's not even a hard left moderate!
He is off scale leftist.
Gimmee that old time Conservatism,
It’s good enough for me!
Well let’s hope they all vote that way.
Remember all the freepers that said they wouldn’t vote for mccain. That didn’t help.
I wonder how many of those moderates are too ashamed to admit they are liberals?
They didn't have to vote for McCain, they could have voted for Sarah Palin by proxy via McCain like I did.
I agree with most of your positions, but I suggest an alternative of re-phrasing it in "affirmative" language, such as: "Fiscal conservatism requires border security, and some 'free market' legislation."
The goal would be the electoral advantage of gaining the votes of folks who are fiscally conservative (but may have other views on "social" issues).
In other words, attracting the growing Libertarian and independent sectors, similar to how Reagan himself advocated a "big tent" approach.
Fine, but liberals and their policies are embedded in our laws, courts, schools, and bureaucracies. It’s going to take a lot more than 42% to convince the rest of society to make the sea change necessary to stop the decline, much less reverse it.
I think we’ll be splitting in two pretty soon, so the “conservative” side of that dis-union can revert to the constitution.
President Reagan didn't build a Big Tent, he convinced people that he was right, and welcomed them into the fold. The last thing the GOP needs to be doing, as our Republic teeters on the brink of collapse, is to further change and bend their beliefs and platform to pander to a wider and wider audience. That's what got our nation where it is today, and led me to leave the party back in '96. Rather, conservatives need to be engaging people who are wrong, and convincing them our views and beliefs are right.
That is, unless the ultimate goal is simply to have more people in Congress with an "R" behind their names than those with a "D" behind their names. If that's the case, well, welcome to RINOville, USA.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
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