Gallup is out today with a new survey showing more Americans are moving to the Right politically than to the Left, including people in all three major groups, Republicans, Independents and Democrats.
“Despite the results of the 2008 presidential election, Americans, by a 2-to-1 margin, say their political views in recent years have become more conservative rather than more liberal, 39% to 18%, with 42% saying they have not changed. While independents and Democrats most often say their views haven’t changed, more members of all three major partisan groups indicate that their views have shifted to the right rather than to the left, ” the polling organization said in a special report released earlier today.
The results follow hard on the heels of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s announcement of her intent to resign her office at the end of this month, and will almost certainly add new fuel to the spirited debate raging among conservatives and liberals in both political parties about the wisdom and timing of her decision.
The latest Gallup results also come soon after the organization reported that 40 percent of Americans now identify themselves as conservatives, the highest level since 2004.
In a masterful piece of understatement, the unnamed author of the Gallup announcement of its specia report results offered this observation:
The latest data also strongly suggest not only that the election results of 2006 and 2008 should be read as a stunning rejection of current Republican office-holders and spokesmen, but also that Democrats are wrong to read into those results a mandate for liberal change.
“However, the results are conspicuously incongruous with the results of the 2008 elections, in which the Democratic Party won the White House for the first time in eight years, and increased its majority control in the U.S. House and Senate. Rather than suggesting an upturn in conservatism, the elections, the tattered image of the GOP, depressed identification with the Republican Party, and President Obama’s broad popularity have many in and outside of the Republican Party wondering whether the country has outgrown the GOP’s largely conservative platform.”
