Battleground Poll: Is the Conservative Movement Losing Momentum?

By Bruce Walker

The latest Battleground Poll numbers have been released. There have been more than twenty Battleground Polls over the last ten years, and the most consistent datum in these polls has been the response to Question D3, which asks Americans to identify their ideology. Sixty percent of Americans called themselves "very conservative" or "somewhat conservative," while thirty-six percent of Americans called themselves "very liberal" or "somewhat liberal." The Lilliputian "moderate" or "refused/don't know" has seldom for either been higher than two percent. The poll taken in late August 2011 appears to show a trend away from this overwhelming conservative majority. Question D3 in this poll shows a decade-low fifty-five percent of Americans call themselves conservative while the percentage of Americans who call themselves liberal has risen to a decade-high thirty-nine percent. If the numbers in all the past polls had not been so extremely consistent, regardless of how Americans felt on other issues or about political leaders, this sudden jolt would not be particularly curious. Conservatives heartened by past responses to.... (Read Full Article)