A new survey about Americans’ political ideology is out from Gallup - attitudes have remained steady over the course of 2020 as 12 twelve months of nonstop tumult rolled across the nation. The survey uses combined data from 18 separate polls encompassing interviews with more than 18,000 American adults. Newell invited Lydia Saad, Senior Editor with Gallup to explain what the numbers show.
“The approach you had comparing where we were in 1992-1994, and the breakdown of where the ideological bent was then and where it is now really struck me,” Newell began. “Not many differences in many respects - tell us about it.”
“We’re really a melting pot, aren’t we?” Saad said. “Not just of ethnicities but politics, and we’ve long been a county of conservatives, moderates and liberals all coexisting. Those things don't change quickly, and they haven't changed much over the last couple of decades… particularly in the last year where we’ve had a lot of disruptions, Americans’ fundamental ideological outlook has remained the same.”
“How do those numbers break down, exactly?” Newell asked.
“When we asked people to describe their political views and averaged it over 2020, we had 36% say they were conservative, 35% as moderate and 25% as liberal. Conservatives and moderates are about equally matched, and liberals are the smallest share. That's similar to the percentages in 2019, and really where they’ve been for the last 5 or 6 years. There has been a shrinking conservative advantage over the last quarter century, back in the 90’s and through about the first half of George W. Bush’s term, there was about a 20% advantage for conservatives. Since then, conservatism has held steady but there are now fewer moderates and more liberals. The gap between conservatives and liberals has shrunk as more people identified as liberal over time.”
“What about the independents and those in the middle?” Newell continued. “What do you hear as to what motivated folks who may have once been conservative or liberal to drive them to become an independent?”
“We don’t ask folks that question, but we can triangulate that answer from other data we have,” Saad answered. “We ask people to describe their views on social issues versus economic issues - are they conservaite or liberal in those two separate dimensions? We find that more people identify as conservative on economic issues than do for social issues. Over time, the public has become more liberal on social issues on particular, and we see that in policy outcomes like legalization of marijauna, or gay marriage. When we ask them these questions, they’re more likely to feel the liberal label matches them. Republicans, meanwhile, have become more conservaitve over time, as Democrats are more likely to call themselves liberal.”
Hear the entire interview in the audio player below.
