In his Oct. 28 column, Brent Bozell uncritically touts polling that claims the existence of more conservatives than liberals:
When asked if their views were liberal, moderate, or conservative, 38 percent said conservative, and only 23 percent said liberal. In January, those numbers were 32 percent and 24 percent, respectively. That’s a net gain of seven points for conservatives since Obama took office. That’s a national headline. Unless you’re a leftist media outlet, in which case you ignored it.
[…]
That number is no fluke. Consider Gallup, which conducts thousands of interviews with Americans each year and always asks respondents to describe their political views. So far in 2009, 40 percent of those surveyed call themselves conservative. That’s up from 37 percent in 2007 and 2008, the lowest percentage of self-identified conservatives in more than a decade. Movement is coming from independents. In Gallup’s 2008 interviews, 29 percent of independents self-described as conservative. This year, it’s 35 percent.Conservatism is not dead. It is not only alive, it is growing.
Or perhaps not. Research also shows that a significant number of people who self-identify as “conservatives” don’t necessarily hold conservative beliefs.