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Poll Watch: Conservatives Continue to Be the Largest Ideological Block of Americans
According to the latest Gallup Poll.Political ideology in the U.S. held steady in 2011, with 40% of Americans continuing to describe their views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal. This marks the third straight year that conservatives have outnumbered moderates, after more than a decade in which moderates mainly tied or outnumbered conservatives.
The percentage of Americans calling themselves “moderate” has gradually diminished in the U.S. since it was 43% in 1992. That is the year Gallup started routinely measuring ideology with the current question. It fell to 39% in 2002 and has been 35% since 2010. At the same time, the country became more politically polarized, with the percentages of Americans calling themselves either “conservative” or “liberal” each increasing.
Gallup measures political ideology by asking Americans to say whether their political views are very conservative, conservative, moderate, liberal, or very liberal. Relatively few Americans identify with either extreme on this scale, although 2 in 10 Republicans self-identify as very conservative — double the proportion of Democrats calling themselves very liberal.
Remember after the 2008 Presidential election of President Obama when the left said the Right was finished and that the GOP was a regional party. But, as the 2010 elections proved, it is really the Democrat Party that is a two state party.
And, so it continues……
Guess the result of a Far Left ideological President and Congress is blowback, eh? -
The Demise of the Conservative Blogosphere – John Hawkins Edition
The demise of the independent conservative blogosphere is simply overestimated by John Hawkins. In other words, John boy has it wrong.
Most bloggers are not very good at marketing, not very good at monetizing, there are no sugar daddies giving us cash, and this isn’t the biggest market in the world to begin with. In other words, this is a time-consuming enterprise, but few people are going to make enough money to go full time. How many people can put in 20-30-40-50 hours a week on something that’s not going to ever be their full time job? Can they do it for 5 years? 10 years? 15? 20? This is the plight that 99.9% of serious, independent conservative bloggers face. This has already created a lot of attrition and over the next few years, as people realize that their traffic is more likely to slowly, but surely significantly deteriorate rather than explode, you’re going to see a lot more people give up.
Bloggers have asked me: So what’s the strategy to deal with this?
Really, it’s simple: Get big or go home.
Find a way to dramatically increase the size of your blog, expand into multiple websites that together are big, hook up with someone who’s already big, or accept that there isn’t much of a future in a small, niche market for you. Maybe that sounds a little grim, but unless something changes, independent conservative bloggers who haven’t already made it big don’t have a bright future.
No, I cannot agree. There is more to life than traffic to blogs for the conservative world. There is Twitter which has jump-started the Tea Party and to a lesser extent there is Facebook where conservatives can more socially interact. Google Plus has just started and there will be a place for conservative bloggers there as well.
The blogosphere and social media are interconnected and it is far better for the smaller, independent blogger.
When I first started this enterprise over five years ago, nobody knew who the hell I was or cared. The large blogs (the ones with the most traffic) linked within themselves. Nobody gave a rat’s ass about the upstarts in the sphere. But, with Twitter and Facebook, content and opinion hit the internet without the filter of Instapundit or Powerline. Traffic to the independents grew and so did modest ad revenue.
Power in the blogosphere shifted to the small, independent blogger who might cover more, especially in their own locale. Commentary was not limited to large blogs comments sections but to Twitter and Facebook.
So, with these changes, why would anyone quit?
In the era of the grass-roots Tea Party, it is time to get started.
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Poll Watch: Conservatives Outnumber Moderates and the Left
The numbers are there.Conservatives have maintained their leading position am ong U.S.ideological groups in the first half of 2010. Gallup finds 42% of Americans describing themselves as either very conservative or
conservative. This is up slightly from the 40% seen for all of 2009 and contrasts with the 20% calling themselves liberal or very liberal.Now, can the GOP and the RIGHT do anything about them to achieve political power?
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A Good Time to Be a Conservative in the Republican Party
Yes!And next week, in real balloting, conservative Republicans are likely to win in Virginia, a state Obama carried. Meanwhile, a liberal Republican anointed by the GOP establishment for the special congressional election in Upstate New York will probably run third, behind the conservative Republican running on the Conservative Party line, who may in fact win.
The lesson activists around the country will take from this is that a vigorous, even if somewhat irritated, conservative/populist message seems to be more effective in revitalizing the Republican Party than an attempt to accommodate the wishes of liberal media elites.
So the GOP is likely, for the foreseeable future, to be of a conservative mind and in a populist mood. In American politics, there are worse things to be.
Isn’t the populist/conservative mindset how Ronald Reagan brought America back from the disaster of the Jimmy Carter Presidency?
Next week’s elections will start the narrative for 2010 and a challenge to Obama in 2012.
Technorati Tags: Conservatives, GOP, Polling
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Poll Watch: Conservatives Are Largest Ideological Group, Liberals Smallest
So Says the latest Gallup Poll.Thus far in 2009, 40% of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal. This represents a slight increase for conservatism in the U.S. since 2008, returning it to a level last seen in 2004. The 21% calling themselves liberal is in line with findings throughout this decade, but is up from the 1990s.
No surprise here.
Is there any wonder why Left-Wing activists view the “Liberal” label as an anathema and prefer to use the word progressive?
All spin.
But do note:
- Conservatives – 40%
- Moderates – 35%
- Liberals – 21%
Technorati Tags: Conservatives, Liberals
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Conservative William Rusher Pens His Last Column
The end of another era for the RIGHT in the United States – William Rusher has written his last column.I began writing these columns 36 years ago and have come to the conclusion that it’s time to bring them to a close. It’s certainly not a problem of lacking subject matter. It’s simply that I am 85 now, and the energy and creative juices are just not what they used to be. Anyone in that age bracket will know what I mean.
Flap remembers back in the 80’s when Rusher was the Publisher of the National Review and wrote a letter to Rusher about his book, The Rise of the Right. To Flap’s surprise I received a handwritten note in reply.
I understand he always handled his own correspondence.
- How to Win Arguments
- The Making of the New Majority Party
- The Rise of the Right,
- The Ambiguous Legacy of the Enlightenment
- Short Course on South Africa
An archive of his Townhall columns is here and the Claremont Institute here.
Here is a long interview with Rusher regarding the American Conservative movement:
Conversations host Harry Kreisler speaks with William A. Rusher, former publisher of the “National Review”Bill will be remembered fondly and will have many years of happy retirement.
Technorati Tags: William Rusher
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President 2008 Watch: Conservatives – Looking Past Bush
Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll
Wall Street Journal: Bush’s Conservative Base Frets Key Issues Are Losing Focus
Social, Economic Backers Increase Their Criticism As War Directs Agenda
Fallout from the war in Iraq, which already has weakened President Bush among the general public and in Congress, now is causing problems with the group that has been his mainstay: social and economic conservatives.
These longtime loyalists, appreciative of Mr. Bush’s record on issues ranging from tax cuts to his veto of federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, also have supported his war policies. But Mr. Bush’s annual State of the Union message Tuesday night aggravated their underlying fear: that the president might become so consumed by the worsening conflict in Iraq — and chastened by Democrats’ takeover of Congress — that he will give up on the issues they care about.
“I think the president left a lot of conservatives shaking their heads” by avoiding the issues atop their agenda, said Bill Lauderback, executive vice president at the American Conservative Union.
Yesterday morning, the weekly meeting of conservatives that is convened by antitax activist Grover Norquist, a White House ally, was marked by “tense exchanges” with administration press secretary Tony Snow over border enforcement and Mr. Bush’s immigration proposals, according to conservative activists.
Conservatives are becoming more openly critical, adding to the president’s woes and emboldening Democrats for battles ahead. Increasingly, they are looking beyond Mr. Bush for a new standard-bearer, though no one in Republicans’ emerging 2008 presidential field has yet captured conservatives.
President Bush has bee a lame duck for over a year. When he refused to enforce the immigration laws and the Mexican illegal aliens were protesting in the streets of Los Angeles conservatives received the message.
When the President nominated Harriet Miers to the United States Supreme court, conservatives heard the message.
After the cataclysmic Congressional election of 2006, Bush sold out Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, conservatives received the message.
Time for conservatives to move on.
Time to reformulate “realistic” policies that can be enacted into law and drop self-destructive minority perpetuating litmus tests.
Has anyone been listening to Newt Gingrich lately?
Technorati Tags: NewtGingrich, Conservatives, GOP
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Blogger Satement On GOP Leadership Race Watch: An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers
An Appeal from Center-Right BloggersWe are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us all of the time. But we do agree on this: The new leadership in the House of Representatives needs to be thoroughly and transparently free of the taint of the Jack Abramoff scandals, and beyond that, of undue influence of K Street.
We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather than simply influence Members.
But we are certain that the public is disgusted with excess and with privilege. We hope the Hastert-Dreier effort leads to sweeping reforms including the end of subsidized travel and other obvious influence operations. Just as importantly, we call for major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in Congressional operations and in the appropriations process.
As for the Republican leadership elections, we hope to see more candidates who will support these goals, and we therefore welcome the entry of Congressman John Shadegg to the race for Majority Leader. We hope every Congressman who is committed to ethical and transparent conduct supports a reform agenda and a reform candidate. And we hope all would-be members of the leadership make themselves available to new media to answer questions now and on a regular basis in the future.
Signed,
N.Z. Bear, The Truth Laid Bear
Hugh Hewitt, HughHewitt.com
Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.com
Kevin Aylward, Wizbang!
La Shawn Barber, La Shawn Barber’s Corner
Lorie Byrd, Polipundit
Beth Cleaver, MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Jeff Goldstein, Protein Wisdom
Stephen Green, Vodkapundit
John Hawkins, Right Wing News
John Hinderaker, Power Line
Jon Henke / McQ / Dale Franks, QandO
James Joyner, Outside The Beltway
Mike Krempasky, Redstate.org
Michelle Malkin, MichelleMalkin.com
Ed Morrissey, Captain’s Quarters
Scott Ott, Scrappleface
John Donovan / Bill Tuttle, Castle Argghhh!!!Flap agrees…….
Technorati Tags: JackAbramoff, Hastert, Drier, JohnShadegg, HouseofRepresentatives, HouseMajorityLeader, TomDelay, RepublicanParty,
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Young Americans for Freedom Watch: California Chapter has New Website
