In the past two years, Americans have become increasingly likely to describe the Democratic Party's views as "too liberal" (49%), and less likely to say its views are "about right" (38%). Americans' views of the Republican Party, on the other hand, have moderated slightly, with a dip in the percentage saying the GOP is too conservative from 43% last year to 40% today, and an increase in the percentage saying it is about right, from 34% to 41%.IMAGE CREDIT: iOWNTHEWORLD.
The recent increase in perceptions of the Democratic Party as too liberal could be a response to the expansion in government spending since President Barack Obama took office, most notably regarding the economic stimulus and healthcare legislation.
The 49% of Americans who now believe the Democratic Party's views are too liberal is one percentage point below the 50% Gallup measured after the 1994 elections, the all-time high in the trend question first asked in 1992.
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In their efforts to attract widespread voter support in general elections, parties and their candidates generally want to avoid being perceived as too ideologically extreme. Indeed, a common strategy in U.S. electoral politics is for Republican candidates to try to paint their Democratic opponents as too far left, and Democratic candidates to try to convince voters that their Republican opponents are too far right. 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. With Election Day more than four months away, however, the Democratic Party has an opportunity in the 2010 campaign to try to alter voters' perceptions of the party's ideology.
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Monday, June 14, 2010
Change! Near-Record 49% Say Democratic Party 'Too Liberal'
At Gallup:
1) This poll also has the Dems at a net -9 favorable and the Republicans at a net -22 favorable. So, while more independents and Republicans think the Dem party is "too liberal" (the movement within the Dem party of +1 "too liberal" is not statistically significant), the Republican party still has a worse image problem.
ReplyDelete2) This data is interesting from a horse-race perspective (albeit not as detailed as I would like--where from the "independent" population is the important 12-point shift coming from?), but not from a policy perspective. Here, point estimation is probably more useful, and that data consistently shows the general population slightly to the left of the median congressional democrat--which isn't surprising, given the Democrats have passed a Republican health care plan, reduced taxes, and nominated two (objectively, albeit not in Fox-land) legal centrists to the Supreme Court.