Gallup: 4 in 10 Americans now more conservative

July 7, 5:53 PMConservative Politics ExaminerKathy Shaidle

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(AP Photo)

Throughout this year, a number of Gallup polls have garnered headlines. These widely publicized polls seem to indicate a shift to the right in terms of Americans and their values.

On July 6, Gallup released yet another poll serving up similar results:

Despite the results of the 2008 presidential election, Americans, by a 2-to-1 margin, say their political views in recent years have become more conservative rather than more liberal, 39% to 18%, with 42% saying they have not changed. While independents and Democrats most often say their views haven't changed, more members of all three major partisan groups indicate that their views have shifted to the right rather than to the left.

Of seven values issues measured in 2004 and again in 2008 or 2009, Gallup found significant movement on just two, and only one on which Americans became more liberal (the government's role in promoting traditional values).

(Of course, many conservatives of the more libertarian variety who are reading this are puzzled by Gallup's notion that "government promotion" of anything, even something as worthy as "traditional values," is in any way, shape or form "conservative"! For them, the finding that there's been a 7 point drop in support for such programs, the names of which don't immediately spring to mind anyhow, is good news.)

Earlier this year, Gallup reported a major shift in American attitudes about abortion, with a switch to the pro-life side coming in at 51%-42%.

Last month, as reported at Examiner.com, another Gallup poll revealed that:

the United States is a right of center nation. 40% of Americans identify themselves as conservative, and only 21% call themselves a liberal. 35% identify themselves as moderate, and 4% had no opinion. Even with the most liberal president this country has ever seen, Americans still identify more with conservatism than any other political ideology.

Many observers can't reconcile these findings with the incontrovertible fact that Barack Obama was elected President late last year. If Gallup's findings can be believed, Americans straddle left and right on many issues, and don't come down overwhelmingly on the "right" side in a doctrinaire way.

Gallup's theory is that given America's slight rightward leaning, Obama's victory can best be explained by something other than ideology. Perhaps, like Western electorates everywhere have been known to do, they just collectively felt it was "time for a change."

Another possibility is that Republican incompetence and corruption, and its selection of a less than overwhelmingly conservative Presidential candidate, may have played a role.