Gallup is reporting that conservatives finish 2009 as the most popularly self-identified ideology in the United States. Based on the graph and the commentary, June of 2009 was the turning point in which voters who had previously classified themselves as independent increasingly identified themselves as conservative.
What this means, exactly, is hard to say. Of course, I’d like to immediately jump up and pound my chest and say: “See? Everyone was sold a bill of goods by Obama, and they’re finally waking up.” Instead, I think you’re seeing a large segment of the population who had given the administration the benefit of the doubt actively change their ideological identification. Is it because the ideas themselves are suspect? (I think they are, but not everyone agrees.) I would wager that most independent-minded Americans (hard to find here in Texas) have come to grips with the economic realities behind the grandiose campaign promises. Health care reform may not cost all the voters who put Obama in office money, but it will certainly cost the people who could keep him there enough that they’ll be gun shy about sending him back for a second term.
Couple this with the general dissatisfaction that America has with Congress, and you have a recipe for a mid-term change-over. It’ll be interesting to see if the Democrats lose just their anti-filibuster in the Senate, or if they lose their true majority.
The only thing that hurts the burgeoning movement on the right is the lack of a clear focus. No one has stepped forward to articulate conservatism in such a way that they’re rallying anyone outside of the rank-and-file Republicans (and if anyone mentions Sarah Palin, I’m going to mail you a spring and a boxing glove so you can build a mechanism to repeatedly punch yourself in the nuts).
At any rate, I’m glad I’m not the only one living through the nightmare of an impending socialist dystopia.
The only thing that hurts the burgeoning movement on the right is the lack of a clear focus.
That’s a very big, very critical “only thing”. What is the purpose of a political party apart from a focus?
I will be voting for the conservative for the forseeable future. My previous issues with “picking the lesser of two evils” will be put aside to send a message that I do not approve of the direction our government excesses are taking us. I do NOT believe in the “redistribution of wealth” by a liberal segment of American society that gives far less to charity than their “evil self serveing” conservative counterparts.
Kudo’s pete for the article
Ron Paul 2012
As a member of the “Geezer” cult, I have lived through the times when the respective parties roles were opposite with respect to who they purported to represent. I have come to the conclusion that they are all a bunch of lying S.O.B’s and are not to be trusted without extreme oversite. In recent history when the Republicans held all the positions of power, Oval Office, House and Senate, they pissed it away and did nothing to better the nation and its people. Lack of clear leadership and focus is the problem in my aged opinion. Even that fumbling, bumbling lackluster performance was much less damaging to us than what we are experiencing under the Dems. I view the uprising in Mass. with the latest Republican win in Kennedy’s vacated seat with a glimmer of hope that we might yet get it right.. Blitzfike