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Sabato’s Crystal Ball: Do Americans View Both Parties As Too Extreme?
Alan I. Abramowitz: Do Americans View Both Parties as Too Extreme?
According to the Gallup Poll, many Americans today view both major political parties as too extreme ideologically. In a survey conducted from June 14-17 of this year, 46 percent of Americans said that the Democratic Party was “too liberal” while 42 percent described its political views as “about right” and 8 percent said it was “too conservative.” In the same survey, 43 percent of Americans saw the Republican Party as “too conservative” while 34 percent who described its political views as “about right” and 17 percent said it was “too liberal.” The 46 percent of respondents who described the Democratic Party as too liberal was the highest since the Gallup Poll began asking this question in 1992, and the 43 percent who described the Republican Party as too conservative tied the previous high mark set last year.
It is clear that many Americans today view the Democratic Party as “too liberal” and the Republican Party as “too conservative,” but do these results mean that Americans are dissatisfied with the extreme views of both parties? Not necessarily. To answer this question, we need to examine how Democrats and Republicans view both their own party’s ideology and the opposing party’s ideology. It is possible that Democrats and Republicans view the opposing party as too extreme while viewing their own party as just about right ideologically. If that is the case, then the growing percentage of Americans who view the Democratic Party as too liberal and the Republican Party as too conservative may reflect increasing ideological polarization, but not increasing discontent.
7 Responses to “Sabato’s Crystal Ball: Do Americans View Both Parties As Too Extreme?”
The more pertinent examination would be how Independents and unaffiliated voters view the parties.
YES!
Trim a few issues on each and they BOTH AGREE! We can actually get something done on core issues.
May I suggest that they start by each dumping one fringe group issue.
I motion that the left drop gay marriage and the right drop resistance to universal health care..
BTW, we middle-grounders want the rainbow and the caduceus. back as symbols that the general population can use again without extreme and perverse agendas automatically being assigned to their display.
DEATH TO THE INSURANCE COMPANIES!
Neither party is truly extreme, despite the hype and related junk the Left hurls about the GOP, US conservatism, and the ever-hyped “Religious Right,” “extreme right” [sic] and “far right” [sic], the latter of which actually has no clout at all — even those who aren't that way but are populist Right and paleo-con like Patrick Buchanan don't peg the real-world meter. You have to view the rest of the public, most of whom are center-right, which point or just to the left (well right of this Web site) defines true moderation.
The Dems are farther left than the GOP is rightward, and the left Dems are starting to gain in Washington at our expense and more and more to our concern lately, but the truly farthest-left Dems still aren't much in force, and many on the farther left are disenchanted with the Dems, anyway; some have been Greens.
The most noteworthy thing to watch for is something we're starting to see already — an effort by the Dems to shove Washiongton leftward on several issues rapidly. The nature of the effort concerns us as much as the nature of the bad legislation they are trying to pass, and we're still trying to learn why they are doing what they are doing, because it is well to left of so much of what the public wants or expects.
DLS–
You are absolutely delusional.
DLS…I agree with Father Time. Wanting gays to be under the umbrella of marriage is extreme. Wanting to extort people for insurance premiums is extreme. Just because each end of the polarity spectrum is desensitized to the radical nature of their agendas doesn't mean they are any more palitible to those of us pragmatists in the center.
If you're raised to see gay sex [and therefore marraige?} as normal, then you are aghast at anyone who would differ with your outlook. If you're raised to believe people's health is a profit commodity then anyone who is against your views is seen as bizarre…
There is something in the center that is lacking on either end of the spectrum. That is self control, moderation and a basic morality that transcends buzzwords, hype and political-correctness. It is a sober and mature position instead of an indulgent and childish set of demands from a perverse minority having a tantrum that the majority won't let them have their way!!!