From the Gallup organization comes the news that 49% of Americans believe that the Democrats are “too liberal.” This is only slightly below the all-time high of 50%, recorded in 1994, when Democrats suffered their worst defeat in congressional elections since 1946. In addition, that 49% is significantly larger than the 43% who believe that the Republicans are “too conservative.” As Gallup analyst Jeffrey Jones puts it, “Currently, by 49% to 40%, more Americans perceive the Democratic Party as too liberal than say the Republican Party is too conservative, giving the Republicans an advantage in an important election year.”
Among self-identified Democrats the percentage identifying their party as too liberal has not changed significantly since 2008, but the percentage identifying Democrats as too conservative has risen slightly, from 6% to 14%. That suggests that a certain number of left-leaning Democrats may not be motivated to vote in 2010. Among self-identified Independents the percentage identifying Democrats as too liberal has increased from 40% in 2008 to 52% in 2010. That’s in line with the many findings that Independents are much less favorable to Democrats and closer to Republicans’ positions than they were in 2008.
One might add that there’s probably less danger in being perceived as too conservative than in being perceived as too liberal, since about twice as many Americans identify themselves as conservative than identify themselves as liberal.
