Once again a new poll underscores how political mantras partisans and ideologists use basically go into echo chamber and create inaccurate “realities.” Forget Rush, Sean, their conservative website that has “liberals” every other word, the right wing writers who seem to assume “liberal” automatically means bad and “conservative” is somehow magically makes it intrinsically good. A new polls finds that liberals are making a big comeback. And moderates are on the rise. Get ready for the usual rages (who exist in both parties — uh, oh here come the political equivlancy police) to go on about the bad methodology, and how this poll comes form the liberal media.
To quote Rick Perry: “Oops.” This poll is from the Wall Street Journal (owned by Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch), in association with NBC News (“AHA! I told you it’s all a liberal lie!”)
There are signs that liberals are making a comeback — and not just because a socialist is running for president, gay marriage is spreading like wildfire and pot legalization is gaining acceptance.
A new analysis of Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll data finds a marked increase in the share of registered voters identifying themselves as liberals, and an even bigger drop in the share saying they are conservatives.
In three national polls conducted so far in 2015, the analysis found that 26% of registered voters identified themselves as liberals — up from 23% in 2014. At the same time, the share of voters identifying as conservatives dropped to 33% from 37% in 2014.
(“Yeah, yeah, yeah: I bet they left out all the millions of Fox News viewers!”)
AND:
From 2010 through 2014, there was little overall variation in the share of people identifying themselves as conservative, moderate and liberal, with conservatives either a plurality or tied with moderates. But that stability seems to be ending this year. For the first time since 2010, conservatives are no longer are a plurality: 38% identify as moderates, compared with the 33% who identify as conservative and 26% as liberal.
Mr. McInturff said it wasn’t immediately clear what accounts for the shift. Another poll analysis by Gallup also suggests there has been a leftward movement on social issues: 31% of adults in a May 6-10 poll identified themselves as liberal on social issues — the largest share since Gallup started asking the question in 1999, and the first time social liberals matched the share who said they were socially conservative. On economic issues, by contrast, conservatives continued to dominate by a 39%-19% margin.
AND:
These signs of an ideological shift come at a time when public opinion is rapidly changing in favor of gay marriage — a social view long regarded as liberal that is gaining wider acceptance among members of both parties. On the broader political landscape this year, liberal populism is gaining prominence in the anti-Wall Street rhetoric of presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist, and of liberal icon Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
“Americans’ growing social liberalism is evident not only in how they describe their views on social issues but also in changes in specific attitudes, such as increased support for same-sex marriage and legalizing marijuana,” the Gallup report said.
The liberal group that has the greatest shift leftward has been women 18-40 — precisely the group that some conservative politicians, broadcasters and writers seek to be almost intentionally trying to offend or disdain.
But perhaps in the 21st century we are in a new era where “politics” needs to be redefined, where winning elections is a liberal idea. The ideas of consensus and compromise were ditched so why not the idea of trying to win elections?
Most notable is this:
Younger voters also saw a notable swing to the left, with 35% of 18-34-year-olds saying they are liberal and 26% saying the are conservative. In 2010, that age group split 28% liberal-32% conservative.
Indeed, in my travels and in running my blog and doing my Cagle column I have come across many young people who are dismayed or amused the conservative rage, demonization and the concept that “liberal” is automatically bad.
Still, it takes a while for a choir to learn a new song.
But I don’t think this choir has even gotten the new music yet.
Or cares that it exists.
Meanwhile, those mushy, irrelevant moderates I get so many emails about seem to be increasing in rank. The emails from the right AND LEFT suggest moderates are a)uninformed b)don’t have principles c)are really closet Republicans (some liberals will say) or closet Democrats (some conservatives will say).
NOT!
graphic via shutterstock.com
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.