We are constantly being told by the media and political pundits that the United States is a conservative country. And I have no doubt that if you took a poll of all Americans and just asked "Are you a conservative or a liberal?", a majority would say they are a conservative. But is that really true?
I don't think so. I think a lot of people would hesitate to call themselves a liberal because the right-wing, with the cooperation of the corporate media, have been successful in demonizing the word liberal. But when it comes to their actual beliefs (rather than a political label), most Americans agree with liberal ideas more than conservative ideas.
The chart above (from a Public Religion Research Institute survey done in September of 2014) shows this. All of the ideas on that chart are liberal ideas -- and they are all supported by a significant majority of Americans. And all those ideas are opposed by right-wing (conservative) Republicans. It seems there is a big difference between calling yourself a conservative and believing in conservative ideas (most of which favor the rich and the corporations instead of the people).
Republicans will point to the last election as proof that most Americans agree with their ideas, but that is just not true. They won in 2014 because too many people stayed home and didn't vote -- not because most support the regressive ideas of Republicans.
Democrats need to forget labels, and just campaign on issues -- especially the issues listed in the chart above. If they do that, they'll find they have the support of most voters in 2016.
I think that if you look at all adult citizens (potential voters), we are distinctly a center-left nation. In terms of actual voters (taking into account both on- and off-year elections), we are a center nation. The idea that we are a center-right nation is madness. I don't know how that claim got to be so common.
ReplyDeleteAs for issues, my experience is that we are economically liberal and socially conservative-ish. Note that in the graph above, it is pretty much exclusively economic issues. And I'm all for that because, even though I'm also a social liberal, it is the economic issues that most matter. This is my main complaint with the Democratic Party: it has grabbed onto social liberalism as an excuse for its economic conservatism. See, for example, Andrew Cuomo. But then, I wouldn't be a Democrat if I weren't always unhappy with the party!