Gallup reports the percentage of Americans who describe themselves as politically conservative is the highest it’s been in twenty years.
Which doesn’t surprise me much; while Americans may have any number of political orientations, real life is conservative for most Americans.
But the real takeaway? Those describing themselves as Democrats are becoming more extreme toward the left:
Most of the long-term change in Americans’ political views occurred after 2000 and can be explained by one overarching factor — an increasing likelihood of Democrats (including independents who lean Democratic) to self-identify as liberal. Democratic liberal identification has increased by about one percentage point each year, from 30% in 2001 to 44% in 2016. As a result, liberalism now ranks as the top ideological group among Democrats.
Meanwhile, there has been an eight-point decline since 2001 in the percentage of Democrats identifying as conservative and a six-point decline in the percentage of Democrats who are moderate.
My two cents? That’s good news.
You may have seen some stories in the past week about efforts in Minneapolis to put people in city offices who are even more left wing and lunatic than those currently in office. Yes, Betsy and the current city council aren’t leftwing enough. Its amusing listening to liberal Democrats from SW Minneapolis say they can’t afford to pay any higher property taxes.
Its interesting how the far left is taking over the Democrat party and using that as a tool to obtain power. Liberal puritans allow no descent.
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Chuck: the libs in SW Mpls deserve nothing less than a penance of self-flagellation. Their privilege demands they pay for the suffering of others, lest their spot in the pews at their ELCA church be damned. “Tax me! Tax me more! Tax me til it hurts! Tax me – right there, bitch! Harder!”
Big S…one white liberal from SW Mpls complained saying he pays more property tax on his house then what is paid on an entire block in North Mpls. Yet, this lilly white lefty refuses to move in to….you know…a neighborhood full of those people.
Well, as they say: If it weren’t for double standards, some people wouldn’t have any.
I’m not sure what is behind the shift. According to Gallup, the change is mostly due to middle-age and older whites changing their self-description from “moderate” to “liberal.”
It may simply be that pop-culture now openly praises liberals, when a quarter century ago it praised moderates. My anecdotal evidence is that the characters on the television program “Seinfeld” (1989-1998 ) were not overtly political. In Larry David’s follow up program, “Curb your Enthusiasm”, the Democrat, anti-Republican politics of David and many of the other characters were discussed openly and provided key plot points.