According to a new Gallup poll, people who identify themselves as conservative outnumber liberals in every state. In President Obama’s home state, conservatives have a 12% edge. Even in Massachusetts, there are 1% more conservatives.
Go figure?
Poll Results HERE
http://www.gallup.com/poll/122333/Political-Ideology-Conservative-Label-Prevails-South.aspx#2
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Comments: 26
Hell over a third of the nation's electorate is non voting anyway. There's probably quite a few of them right there. If all you have in your state to pick from is the GOP or Dems, why bother to vote at all---neither represent you.
Something's eschewed, somewhere.
Me thinks it's the way the poll was conducted--EVEN IF Gallup has often been one of the the signature poll corporations, for quite some time.....
Did Gallup conduct the same poll, over time, and then derived averages--or were these figures the result of only one Poll conducted?
Citizens, and actual voters, can be fickle--sometimes, quite fickle....
"a number of votes cast for a candidate in a contest of more than two candidates that is greater than the number cast for any other candidate but not more than half the total votes cast."
Bill Clinton won by Plurality both times, as did GWB in 2000. Obama won a majority of the popular vote cast, and a decisive majority in the electoral college.
I restrained myself from explaining to you how grateful we were for your research lesson, in your 6:03 PM Post--since most of us did not necessarily either realize that there was more than one page to the link or may not have actually reviewed the percentages. But you wanted to let us know that we hadn't--above and beyond the facts, which were far more important and which you so graciously included.
And, frankly, we actually do thank you for your clarification--because it's an important one [although I tend to believe that some Moderates only say that they are Moderates because they don't want to admit to themselves--much less to others--what their political allegiances, actually are. Therefore, it is my belief that the raw truth--not conducive to proof and thoroughly concealed--is that true Moderates do not necessarily always drive the results. And I think the country is still basically Center Right.....which, I suppose, is Moderate.....but how does that help the Democrats?].
But now your picayune perfectionism comes across again, in your difference of opinion about the definition of "plurality."
I have therefore decided to show my entire array of self-righteous insecurities--by fighting your technical pettitness with tehcnical pettiness of my own:
First (and foremost) there were many, many more than two candidates in the 2008 Presidential election--including, of course, Ron Paul and Ralph Nader.
That nugget of History would therefore tend to neutralize your claim about the misues of "plurality."
Secondly, erroneously or not--and you may be right, about the traditional term of, "plurality", and I apoligize for not going to the Oxford English Dictionary, to confirm your claim--many network anchors and analysts, during national election coverage, use the term, "plurality", in the way that I use it here.
Since they are in the profession of political analysis and I am not, I do not mind standing in such company--by technically misusing the term, as well.
Thirdly and linked to the second point:
Word usage, when technically wrong, becomes a part of the vernacular and therefore becomes acceptable parlance--if used and reused without serious opposition.....just ask Bill Safire or Richard Lederer or the editors of any major dictionary.....(they may not like it--but, hey, ya gotta go along to get along)
Potato, Tomato......let's call the whole thing off....
[and please don't scold me for my run-on sentences; preemptively, I have already performed that task for you....]
"Can someone tell me where the spellchecker, is on this thing?"
(and please stop using spellchecker as if it is a compound word!)
Typos:
"tehcnical"!
"misues"!
there are probably more!
I did this intentionally to see how petty we could become!
It wasn't because I had to feed my cat, who has a pesky cold!
I suspect our host, the Militant Moderate is another.
I would like to see some of these 1-to-5 surveys presented with a graph of the answer frequencies. I expect that if the survey were set up with the Liberal opinions as 1s and the Conservative opinions as 5s (which is bad survey technique, but useful for this hypothetical) you would see very few 3s in the total results, but that the respondents labeled Moderate would have a lot of 1s AND 5s, which average to a 3.
If this is so, it explains why there isn't a major "Moderate" Party. The Moderate has to evaluate each election in terms cost/benefit to his particular set of priorities, balancing losses and gains to his "Custom" set of political aims inherent in picking one of the candidates from the Big Two. But 100 Moderates will probably be far less homogeneous in their opinions than 100 Conservatives or Liberals. We are Moderates By Default.
It's a lot like one of those "If you could only have one (Car/Gun/Book/CD/Whatever) ..." questions. You probably won't pick your absolute favorite, because it is probably too specialized to be your Only.
And I don't know about your rig, but my computer/browser/whatever underlines misspelled words in red and gives suggested corrections when I right-click on the underlined word.
30 - 49 % is the conservative range
32 - 41 % is the moderate range
14 - 29 % is the liberal range
Conservatives and moderates have the best party base for national elections.
The two major parties think they have great platforms.
We don't to make them cry, now do we?
Not that moderates aren't always cool.
Many incorrectly equate liberal and Democrat. This mistake is made not only by the right wing but by "progressive" Democrats who believe that the last election was a mandate to move the country to the left.
I do wonder what many people's definition of conservative/liberal/what have you actually is? Also it would have to include people like me as I'm 3d party but assuredly not a liberal or what ever a moderate is. If I have to choose I must pick conservative but it's not me....