Conservatives Still Outnumber Liberals

A recent Gallup poll shows conservatives still outnumber liberals and moderates. 42% of Americans describe themselves as conservative compared to the 20% that identify themselves as liberal. That 42% is up since last year, when 40% believed themselves to be conservative.

Towards the end of the article, Gallup says, "The ideological orientation of Americans seen thus far in 2010 would represent a record-high level of conservatism if it is maintained by the full year... The 2010 results are based on eight Gallup and USA Today/Gallup surveys conducted from January through June, encompassing interviews with more than 8,000 U.S. adults. The 42% identifying as conservative represents a continuation of the slight but statistically significant edge conservatives achieved over moderates in 2009. Should that figure hold for all of 2010, it would represent the highest annual percentage identifying as conservative in Gallup's history of measuring ideology with this wording, dating to 1992.

The recent rise in conservatism's fortunes follows a decline seen after 2003; liberalism has experienced the opposite pattern. From 1993 to 2002, the ideological trend had been fairly stable, with roughly 40% identifying as moderate, 38% as conservative, and 19% as liberal. Before that, the presidential bid of independent candidate Ross Perot may have contributed to a heightened proportion of Americans (43%) calling themselves moderate in 1992."