Battleground poll – majority consider themselves conservative

Conservatives are the majority. Some may consider us the silent majority since we tend to keep our mouths shut, but again, the most recent Battleground Poll shows our numbers near 60 percent. Liberals and socialists frequently call us racist bigots, warmongers, capitalist pigs and downright mean but maybe it’s time politicians start standing up for conservatism.

Of course, we’d need to get some conservatives to start running for office, but that’s another post.

The George Washington University Battleground Poll is unique as it brings conservatives and liberals together to put together one of the only bi-partisan poll in the country. The first Battleground Poll was conducted in 1991 and since then, the Tarrance Group and Lake Research Partners have put together – what many consider – high-quality information.

Bruce Walker over at American Thinker has pointed out question D3 in two articles recently and I think his analysis deserves additional attention.

This is interesting stuff. 59 percent of those asked considered themselves very conservative or somewhat conservative. Keep in mind that this poll gives the respondents the ultimate out; they can call themselves a moderate, and if that doesn’t work for them they can say they don’t know.

I guess the real question is how many of those who consider themselves conservative would vote for Obama today. Maybe the answer has to do with McCain not being a conservative?

If you’re interested in looking back at previous Battleground results, you’ll find the answer to question D3 has stayed consistent for a long time. From Walker’s piece…

On September 17, a new Battleground Poll asked a new group of Americans Question D3. The result? Fifty nine percent of Americans called themselves conservative. Very recently, on October 6, Battleground released yet another poll asking a large number of questions and, as always, it asked respondents to answer Question D3. Fifty nine percent of Americans in this third Battleground Poll in less than two months called themselves conservative. In the August Battleground Poll, sixty percent of Americans had called themselves conservative.

This is the single most consistent response in any area of any poll over the last decade or so. It ought to be very, very big news. Since early 2002, there have been no less than fifteen Battleground Polls and Question D3 is always asked. If you take all the polls, add the percentages of respondents who call themselves conservative, and divide by the number of polls taken, that percentage is 60%. If you look at the polls over these years individually, the number of Americans in any particular poll who have called themselves conservatives has been as high as 63% in May 2008, and it has been as low as and see the highest percentage of people who call themselves conservative has been as low as 58% in December 2007, but 12 out of the 15 Battleground Polls had the percentage of conservatives at 59%, 60%, or 61%.

So why isn’t this bigger news?