Battleground Poll: Is the Conservative Movement Losing Momentum?

American Thinker ^ | September 8, 2011 | Bruce Walker

[neverdem]

The latest Battleground Poll numbers have been released. There have been more than twenty Battleground Polls over the last ten years, and the most consistent datum in these polls has been the response to Question D3, which asks Americans to identify their ideology. Sixty percent of Americans called themselves "very conservative" or "somewhat conservative," while thirty-six percent of Americans called themselves "very liberal" or "somewhat liberal." The Lilliputian "moderate" or "refused/don't know" has seldom for either been higher than two percent.

The poll taken in late August 2011 appears to show a trend away from this overwhelming conservative majority. Question D3 in this poll shows a decade-low fifty-five percent of Americans call themselves conservative while the percentage of Americans who call themselves liberal has risen to a decade-high thirty-nine percent. If the numbers in all the past polls had not been so extremely consistent, regardless of how Americans felt on other issues or about political leaders, this sudden jolt would not be particularly curious.

Conservatives heartened by past responses to Question D3 could look at the latest Battleground Poll and compare it to the last Battleground Poll before May 2011 and wonder if the conservative movement was not beginning to lose some steam. The May poll showed that fifty-seven percent of Americans called themselves conservative and thirty-seven percent of Americans called themselves liberals. The May 2011 numbers showed a slight diminishing of conservative support in America over prior Battleground Poll data.

Yet, if this was a trend, it was in stark contrast to what Gallup had been reporting. Last month Gallup polling showed that conservatives were not only the largest ideological group in America but that more Americans were conservative than in at least twenty years. As I have observed before, Gallup is not exactly enthusiastic about polls which...

[Graewoulf]

Okay! You are NOT a lib-lurker! You WERE able to re-think and consider another point of view.

Consider this: among the first things that the Bolsheviks did when they took over in Russia was to take over the banks. With the control of capital, ( that is, MONEY ), the Bolsheviks were then able to establish communal control over all the businesses that required money to function.

What distinguishes the above from the recent rise to absolute power of the Obamanationviks?

[Lexinom]

It's a difficult problem, yes. The banks, to be sure, are run by greedy folks who have ticked off the masses.

I don't want a Bolshevik solution, but I also do want to see the banks held to account for taking advantage of the poor and uneducated. One shouldn't need a degree in economics to get ahead, only intelligence, hard work, and honesty...

There is no easy solution that I've come up with to-date.

[Lexinom]

It's a difficult problem, yes. The banks, to be sure, are run by greedy folks who have ticked off the masses.

I don't want a Bolshevik solution, but I also do want to see the banks held to account for taking advantage of the poor and uneducated. One shouldn't need a degree in economics to get ahead, only intelligence, hard work, and honesty...

There is no easy solution that I've come up with to-date.