SoonerBlue

The latest catnip for righties is a new Gallup Poll that says 40 percent of Americans describe their political views as conservative, while 36 percent call themselves moderate and 20 percent call themselves liberal.

My first response is Egad! Next, I'm tempted to do what the righties do when a poll shows them unfavorably -- sneer at it and call it 'funny math.' But I'd rather try to analyze it down to something I can live with.

Maybe conservatives still hold many of the views we’d define as conservative, but don't want to associate themselves with the crazies who have taken over the Republican party...so they'd rather call themselves Independents. I know some of these guys personally.

Formerly left-leaning or moderate Independents aren’t suddenly becoming conservative -- it's the least conservative Republicans who are leaving their party and identifying as Independents.

Other recent surveys haven't shown that conservatives outnumber moderates. The NYT did one that found 21 percent identified themselves as liberal, 39 percent as moderate and 36 percent as conservative.

There was a Post/ABC poll last week that showed just 19 percent of Americans expressed confidence in the Republicans in Congress to make the right decisions for the country's future...and only 40 percent of Republicans trusted Republican congressional leadership.Only 20 percent identified themselves as Republicans.

Don't forget about all those polls lately showing that a large majority of American people support issues like health care reform (public option), regulation of the financial sector, etc...positions that are usually described as somewhat liberal.

The problem with polls asking people to label themselves is that these labels mean different things to different people. This Gallup poll had people choosing between very conservative, conservative, moderate, liberal and very liberal.

Wonder where the Libertarians figured in?

There's also a big difference between New York conservatives and Bible Belt Alabama conservatives.

And a big difference between how people answer a survey and how they vote in private.

For decades Republicans have been knocking themselves out trying to demonize the word "liberal"...so it's probably safe to say that some people who support liberal ideas won't voluntarily identify themselves as liberals. They call themselves ‘progressive’.

Not me, I'm still proud to be a liberal. I love what JFK said about it. *

Remember those videos of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham’s town hall meeting a short time ago? He was shouted down, booed, hissed and called names by his own party...they raged that the country is being taken over by "socialists." Never mind that only Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh's teabaggers can see any movement in that direction.

Maybe a lot of teabaggers are leaving the GOP and calling themselves Independent?

There's no doubt in my mind that Sen. Graham would describe himself as a solid conservative ...but those townhall people were calling him a traitor to his own party...a "RINO."

Anyone can plainly see the wide gap between what different conservatives believe. Many southern conservatives are calling themselves “Confederates”...I guess they want to re-fight the Civil War.

There's also a wide gap between what different liberals believe -- witness the health care public option debate.

Ah well, we'll have to wait until the 2010 election results to see where the country stands. A lot of things can happen between now and then...all this premature projecting is just idle chit-chat. District races, and the choices voters will have are way on down the road,  Independents don't know yet who they're going to vote for.

And I do feel better now.

* "If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."