Gallup Polls Show Liberal Congress in a Conservative Nation

Check out this graph from Gallup (click on pic to enlarge). Interesting.

Gallup has released a poll showing that more people in this country identify themselves as "conservative" than either "moderate" or "liberal" (h/t Jacobson at Legal Insurrection).

According to Gallup:

"The increased conservatism that Gallup first identified among Americans last June persisted throughout the year, so that the final year-end political ideology figures confirm Gallup's initial reporting: conservatives (40%) outnumbered both moderates (36%) and liberals (21%) across the nation in 2009.

"More broadly, the percentage of Americans calling themselves either conservative or liberal has increased over the last decade, while the percentage of moderates has declined."

[...]

"The rather abrupt three-point increase between 2008 and 2009 in the percentage of Americans calling themselves conservative is largely owing to an increase -- from 30% to 35% -- in the percentage of political independents adopting the label. Over the same period, there was only a slight increase in professed conservatism among Republicans (from 70% to 71%) and no change among Democrats (at 21%) [emphasis mine]."

Okay. Now for the kicker a little later in the same Gallup findings:

"Democrats Grow Increasingly 'Liberal'

"Similar to the increased conservatism among Republicans, there was a gradual increase in the last decade in 'liberal' identification among Democrats, from 29% in 2002 to 38% in 2007, and it has since remained at about that level.

"The effect of this shift among Democrats is most apparent when one reviews the trend in their ideological profile over the past decade. Whereas moderates constituted the largest bloc of Democrats in 2000, today they are about tied with liberals as twin leaders, and the proportion of conservatives has declined."

So, we have a rather interesting situation here according to these polls. We have a Congress in the midst of enacting hard Left policies (Socialized health care, Cap & Trade, GM takeover, etc.) and the public has responded by becoming slightly more conservative (40% in 2009 from 37% in 2008)-- yet those describing themselves as liberal have never increased beyond their high water mark of 22% in 2008.

When looking at the trends published by Gallup for the past 16+ years (I wonder when the Left will take their shot at Gallup now as they did with Rasmussen), it is hardly surprising that the Left and Left-dominated Congress is acting in the opaque and tone-deaf manner for the last six months or so. After all, being an unquestioned minority in this country forces you to develop both a certain immunity to both public outcry and the instituted belief that the majority is ignorant or wrong most of the time. How can it be otherwise?

The election of Obama and the rise of the far-Left is really a development of the various political suns, moons, and stars all aligning at just the right moment-- sort of a socialist's Age of Aquarius. But it is also due to certain more conscious and readily recognizable agendas. Jacobson puts it this way:

"America was hoodwinked in 2008 by a presidential candidate who faked a move to the right to set himself up for a hard move to the left. The C-Span broken promise is just the latest example.

"And it all was made possible by a dishonest mainstream media invested in promoting a political candidate instead of reporting and investigating. And who spun the election as a mandate to move the country to the left, when in fact there was no such mandate.

"The Great Deception of 2008 is not water under the bridge. And it shouldn't be treated as such."

I have to agree with that assessment. It seems absurdly true that the media was intent on promoting the historic election of some kind of politically identifiable minority as a president either a woman or a Black American (thus setting into motion the amusing "Olympics of Suffering" during the Democratic Primary-- a face-off that seemed to indicate that both historical and perceived oppression are the primary factors in determining a presidential nominee) and actively did their utmost to accomplish this. But it was not all the media's fault. Hoodwinked or not, Americans elected Obama and a cadre of congressional Democrats eager to tax and change the U.S.

The eventual price of all this could be very high. If the trends that these polls suggest continue, then the price to the Democratic Party could be especially high. But will it be too late to fix the damages to the health care industry, to the economy, and to the national debt by then?