# Are the American people becoming more politically liberal?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [June 23, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135 "2007-06-23T17:25:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/1 "2007-06-23T17:25:19Z")
According to [this](http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070709/perlstein) article, that conclusion is strongly supported by a recent study of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, [“Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2007”](http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=312); as well as by other recent surveys.
> [@](#):
>
> Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2007, a massive twenty-year roundup of public opinion from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, tells the story. Is it the responsibility of government to care for those who can’t take care of themselves? In 1994, the year conservative Republicans captured Congress, 57 percent of those polled thought so. Now, says Pew, it’s 69 percent. (Even 58 percent of Republicans agree. Would that some of them were in Congress.) The proportion of Americans who believe government should guarantee every citizen enough to eat and a place to sleep is 69 percent, too–the highest since 1991. Even 69 percent of self-identified Republicans–and 75 percent of small-business owners!–favor raising the minimum wage by more than $2.
>
> The Pew study was not just asking about do-good, something-for-nothing abstractions. It asked about trade-offs. A majority, 54 percent, think “government should help the needy even if it means greater debt” (it was only 41 percent in 1994). Two-thirds want the government to guarantee health insurance for all citizens. Even among those who otherwise say they would prefer a smaller government, it’s 57 percent–the same as the percentage of Americans making more than $75,000 a year who believe “labor unions are necessary to protect the working person.”
>
> It’s not just Pew. In the authoritative National Election Studies (NES) survey, more than twice as many Americans want “government to provide many more services even if it means an increase in spending” as want fewer services “in order to reduce spending.” According to Gallup, a majority say they generally side with labor in disputes and only 34 percent with companies; 53 percent think unions help the economy and only 36 percent think they hurt. A 2005 NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 53 percent of Americans thought the Bush tax cuts were “not worth it because they have increased the deficit and caused cuts in government programs.” CNN/Opinion Research Corp. found that only 25 percent want to see Roe v. Wade overturned; NPR/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard found the public rejecting government-funded abstinence-only sex education in favor of “more comprehensive sex education programs that include information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraceptives” by 67 percent to 30 percent. Public Agenda/Foreign Affairs discovered that 67 percent of Americans favor “diplomatic and economic efforts over military efforts in fighting terrorism.”
Is there any reason to think otherwise?
If it is true – why? Why the change in political attitudes in America over the past 20 years?
And what can or should the politicians do about it?
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/2 "2007-06-23T17:46:43Z")
Keeping dreaming, **BG**. Keep dreaming.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/3 "2007-06-23T17:56:00Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace]
Keeping dreaming, **BG**. Keep dreaming.
[/QUOTE]
Keep whistling past the graveyard, **John.**
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/4 "2007-06-23T17:56:07Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
Is there any reason to think otherwise?
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, the Republicans have fucked up big time with their so called ‘president Bush’ and their ‘culture of corruption’. Rejection of that, and anything associated with it, necessarily produces a liberal shift. It doesn’t mean anything though, because they’ll go scrambling back to the GOP as soon as it starts pushing untainted candidates.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/5 "2007-06-23T18:01:45Z")
In their book [_The Emerging Democratic Majority,_](http://www.amazon.com/Emerging-Democratic-Majority-John-Judis/dp/0743254783/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0323301-0796122?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182621390&sr=1-1) John Judis and Ruy Teixeira point to lasting demographic trends:
> [@](#):
>
> In 1969 a prescient Kevin Phillips published The Emerging Republican Majority, predicting the rise of the conservative Republican movement. Now Judis, a senior editor at the New Republic, and Teixeira, a fellow at the Century Foundation and author of The Disappearing American Voter, argue that, if current demographic and political trends continue, a new realignment of political power is inevitable, this time sweeping Democrats to power. In support of their thesis they argue that the electorate is becoming increasingly diverse, with growing Asian, Hispanic and African-American populations-all groups that tend to vote Democratic. On the other hand, the number of white Americans, the voting population most likely to favor Republicans, remains static. Further, according to the authors, America’s transition from an industrial to a postindustrial economy is also producing voters who trend strongly Democratic. Judis and Teixeira coin the word “ideopolis” for the geographic areas where the postindustrial economy thrives. They also argue that other changes, specifically the growing educated professional class and the continuing “gender gap,” will benefit Democrats, whose political ideology is more consonant with the needs and beliefs of women and professionals. Judis and Teixeira predict that all these elements will converge by 2008, at the latest, when a new Democratic majority will emerge. Wisely, they warn that their predictions are just that, and that events might overtake the trends. But their warning will bring little comfort to Republicans, who will find their well-supported thesis disturbing.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/6 "2007-06-23T18:03:40Z")
[QUOTE=Squink]
Yeah, the Republicans have fucked up big time with their so called ‘president Bush’ and their ‘culture of corruption’. Rejection of that, and anything associated with it, necessarily produces a liberal shift. It doesn’t mean anything though, because they’ll go scrambling back to the GOP as soon as it starts pushing untainted candidates.
[/QUOTE]
But, the polls in question did not ask about people’s partisan preferences, but their opinions about public policy as such. If the GOP “starts pushing untainted candidates,” those candidates will still be running on policies more and more Americans find unappealing.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/7 "2007-06-23T18:15:20Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
Keep whistling past the graveyard, **John.**
[/QUOTE]
Dude. Of course Americans want all those liberal policies enacted-- they just don’t want to pay for them. This is just like that poll that showed an overwhelming number of Americans were willing to up their taxes by $500 to have universal healthcare. Wow. I’d love to pay only $500 for healthcare.
The US is too big a country, and our governmental system is set up in such a way as to make change extremely difficult. If you see any significant shifts in either direction, it’s going to be at the state level, not at the federal level. You just can’t get a “liberal” agenda thru the Senate. Aint’ gonna happen.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/8 "2007-06-23T18:21:06Z")
Are they? Yes, but slooooowly, so very, very slowly. And as impatient as I am for change, and Lord knows I am, I must confess that may be for the best. Radical and sudden change offers too many openings for the opportunist and the demagogue. Talk to the center, listen to the center, move the center.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/9 "2007-06-23T18:23:18Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
But, the polls in question did not ask about people’s partisan preferences, but their opinions about public policy as such.
[/QUOTE]
But people’s policy preferences depend on whether the policies are being pushed by people they like, or dislike. A thoughtful analysis of the implications of a particular policy comes in there as well, but you need only look as far as the threads about ‘good things Bush has done’ to see how important the identity/party of a policy’s proponent is to the acceptance of a policy.
Even without a partisan tilt in the poll questions, party identification _will_ show up in the responses.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/10 "2007-06-23T18:26:07Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace]
If you see any significant shifts in either direction, it’s going to be at the state level, not at the federal level. You just can’t get a “liberal” agenda thru the Senate. Aint’ gonna happen.
[/QUOTE]
You mean like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Job Corps, VISTA, Food Stamps, Head Start, Medicare and Medicaid, the National Endowment for the Arts, various Environmental acts, and so on?
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/11 "2007-06-23T18:28:24Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.]
You mean like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Job Corps, VISTA, Food Stamps, Head Start, Medicare and Medicaid, the National Endowment for the Arts, various Environmental acts, and so on?
[/QUOTE]
Yep, that’s exactly what I mean. How many of those programs were implemented in the last 25 years? None.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/12 "2007-06-23T18:29:53Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace]
Yep, that’s exactly what I mean. How many of those programs were implemented in the last 25 years? None.
[/QUOTE]
I misunderstood your statement. I thought it was general and not confined to more recent history. Sorry.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/13 "2007-06-23T18:30:43Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace]
Dude. Of course Americans want all those liberal policies enacted-- they just don’t want to pay for them.
[/quote]
From the OP:
> [@](#):
>
> The Pew study was not just asking about do-good, something-for-nothing abstractions. It asked about trade-offs. A majority, 54 percent, think “government should help the needy even if it means greater debt” (it was only 41 percent in 1994).
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/14 "2007-06-23T18:32:36Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator]
Radical and sudden change offers too many openings for the opportunist and the demagogue.
[/QUOTE]
Well, I don’t see any latter-day equivalent of Huey Long on the political horizon just yet. Don’t expect to, either.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/15 "2007-06-23T18:38:42Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
From the OP:
[/QUOTE]
I look at voting trends, not public opinion poll trends for sweeping issues like this.
Americans routinely get fed up with those in power and then look to the other party for answers. If those polls were correct, the Republican party would be pretty much wiped out of existence at the national level. Funny how that hasn’t happened though.
When reality doesn’t match up with your premise, you would be wise to re-examine your premise instead of thinking that there is something wrong with reality.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/16 "2007-06-23T18:41:17Z")
Truly excellent advice, **John**! Isn’t that so often the case with people who ignore the clearly obvious political truths?
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/17 "2007-06-23T18:42:49Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace]
If those polls were correct, the Republican party would be pretty much wiped out of existence at the national level. Funny how that hasn’t happened though.
[/QUOTE]
It won’t happen. The Pubs have too many institutional advantages locked in place – and too many wealthy backers. But they may be reduced to a semi-permanent minority as they were in the FDR years.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/18 "2007-06-23T18:44:00Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator]
Truly excellent advice, **John**! Isn’t that so often the case with people who ignore the clearly obvious political truths?
[/QUOTE]
I’d say that characterizes one George W. Bush very well. He has his mind set up as to the way things should be, and when they don’t turn out that way he blames something else.
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### Author:  [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/19 "2007-06-23T19:01:54Z")
The problem is defining liberal. Both parties are fairly economically liberal. The conservativism of George HW Bush economically was pretty classically liberal, and the policy of his son’s Neo-Conservatism is pretty neo-liberal.
I also think people are getting weary of caring about homosexuality and other such trivial differences.
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### Author:  [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-american-people-becoming-more-politically-liberal/409135/20 "2007-06-23T19:03:22Z")
Yes.
If you trend from 1776. 🙂
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