Gallup: Liberals make up astonishingly small chunk of Americans

Leftist activists close streets in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Dec.7, 2021. (Video screenshot)

Leftist activists close streets in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Dec.7, 2021. (Video screenshot)

Liberals may be filling up the offices at the White House right now. And the seats in Congress. And in newly filled judicial posts. And in education and the military. And don't forget their dominance in social media.

But liberalism actually is an ideology adopted by only a quarter of the nation, even though it has grown somewhat over the last 30 years. But that is so slow that even continuing that out into the future, it would take another 30 or 40 years for liberalism to be adopted by the number of Americans that now support being a moderate, or being a conservative.

The long history of liberals as an also-ran minority comes from Gallup.

Its new polling explains, "The way Americans identify themselves ideologically was unchanged in 2021, continuing the close division that has persisted in recent years between those describing themselves as either conservative or moderate, while a smaller share identifies as liberal. On average last year, 37% of Americans described their political views as moderate, 36% as conservative and 25% as liberal."

While those defining themselves as liberal have grown from 17% three decades ago, those who are moderate have edged back from 43% to about 37%. Conservatives have gone from 36% to 40% to 36% over that time.

"Long term, Americans' political ideology hasn't varied greatly, but moderates were generally the lead group by a slight margin in most years from 1992 to 1998. Between 1999 and 2008, moderates and conservatives were about evenly matched (within two percentage points of each other) – similar to the pattern from 2015 through today. By contrast, in a unique period from 2009 to 2014 – the first six years of Barack Obama's presidency – conservatives held a slight edge," the report said.

Gallup said it measures Americans' political ideology by asking survey respondents whether their political views are "very conservative," "conservative," "moderate," "liberal" or "very liberal."

"Because relatively few people categorize themselves as "very" conservative or liberal, Gallup reports the results in three summary groups -- conservatives, moderates and liberals," Gallup explained.

The liberal ideology has grown among Democrats in recent decades, while those Democrats saying they are conservative or moderate has edged down.

The report said Republicans' right-leaning stance held firm last year, with 74% identifying as conservative, 22% as moderate and just 4% as liberal.

Among subgroups, men, older adults, white adults, those without a college degree and residents of the South and Midwest are more like to identify as conservative.

Liberal views are more likely to be found among women, middle-aged adults, college graduates, Hispanic adults and those who live on the coasts.

Joe Biden's agenda that included fights over U.S. voting laws, government spending, abortion, COVID-19 policies and more was unable to shift any of the indicators, the polling said.

"Americans' general ideological outlook held steady in 2021," the report said.

It all can impact coming elections, the report said.

"With independents being the largest political group, and with more independents describing themselves as moderates than anything else, it may be getting harder for the two major parties to hold political power when they pursue policies too far from the middle. This may be one reason that party control of the presidency and Congress has alternated as much as it has over the past 25 years."

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