Monday, June 15, 2009

Poll: Conservatives still largest ideological group

(USAtoday).Republican affiliation is down in almost every major demographic. A majority of Americans say there's no clear leader for the GOP. And its top House Republican, John Boehner of Ohio, acknowledges that his party is in a "deep hole" right now.

Despite all the bad news for the country's right, here's one good: conservatives remain the largest ideological group in the U.S.

Today's Gallup Poll reports that 40% of Americans identify their political views as conservative, while 35% say they're moderate and 21% call themselves liberal. And though Dems won control of Congress and the White House last November, the percentage of self-identified conservatives is actually up from last year, when 37% of Americans put themselves in the conservative bracket.

"While these figures have shown little change over the past decade, the nation appears to be more polarized than it was in the early 1990s," pollster Lydia Saad noted.

Another note: Republicans tend to be more ideologically unified, with 73% of the GOP calling themselves conservative, while Dems are more split -- 40% say they're moderate, while 38% identify themselves as liberal and 22% say they're conservative.

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"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" (Churchill)