Even Leftist Pollsters Can't Hide the Conservative Majority

November 17, 2011
By Bruce Walker

The November 2011 Battleground Poll shows a profound disconnect in American political perceptions.  To call these results evidence of how effective the left's control of the institutions of American society has been over the last fifty years would be a fair assessment.

The wording of Question 32 suggests that the Battleground Poll has descended into leftism.  It reads thus: "Is there one particular item on the list that you think is the worst possible item to cut?"  Among the seven items listed are "[c]losing tax loopholes" and "[i]ncreasing the taxes on wealth [sic] Americans and corporations."  Apples and oranges.  Closing "tax loopholes" and "increasing taxes," of course, are not cuts in federal expenditures at all, except to leftists who view all income as belonging to the state.

Other questions betray similar mutilated cognition.  Question 26 deals with possible spending cuts and asks respondents if they favor "[m]aking hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid through increasing beneficiary costs."  Question 27 asks respondents if they favor "[m]aking hundreds of millions of dollars in spending cuts to programs like farm subsidies."

Anyone who thinks that cuts of "hundreds of millions" will do anything to address our gigantic federal spending problem is the sort of child who calculates the cost of a mansion in pennies.  The Debt Clock shows that the federal government is spending $3.6 trillion a year, or roughly $400 million an hour.  How would cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and farm subsidies by $900 million each affect federal spending?  The Debt Clock, as of this writing, shows federal spending of $3,600,949,068,010.  Making three cuts of $3.6 billion leaves federal spending at 99.64% of what it is now, which means doing nothing, really, at all.

Question 31 includes in possible spending cuts " programs for soldiers and veterans."  Aside from the fact that "soldiers" is not a generic term for Marines, sailors, and airmen, the wording does not leave open the option of deferring or ending weapons programs or reducing recruitment goals to leave a smaller military.  The clear implication is that any cuts in defense spending must include cuts in programs for military personnel and veterans.

Also missing from all the spending cuts ideas are fraud, waste, and inefficiency.  How many respondents would identify those as a priority area when looking at cuts in federal spending?  We don't know.  Indeed, in the November 2011 Battleground Poll, the very words "fraud," "waste," and "abuse" have been banished.  It seems almost as if the poll was constructed to prevent conservatives from expressing their beliefs.

Surely these contorted questions show that this poll does not tilt towards conservatives and, if anything, leans to the left.  Yet this Battleground Poll, like all the dozens over the last decade, still provides resilient proof of a conservative supermajority in America in the answer to two polling questions.

The first is ideological, and the second is religious.  In the last decade, there have been more than twenty of these polls, each conducted separately and each asking, in Question D3, for respondents to identify their own ideology.  In November 2011, one year before Obama faces voters for reelection, 20% of Americans describe themselves as "very conservative," 41% of Americans describe themselves as "somewhat conservative," 25% of Americans describe themselves as "somewhat liberal," 9% of Americans describe themselves as "very liberal," a whopping 2% of Americans call themselves "moderate," and 3% are "unsure / don't know."   Like past Battleground Polls, the November poll shows conservatives as about 60% of all Americans, even when moderates and "don't know" are included.

This profound conservatism also shows up in Question D11: 50% of Americans go to church or synagogue at least once a week, and 69% of Americans attend services several times a month, while only 2% of Americans never attend church or synagogue services.  This fits in with a March Gallup poll that showed that 92% of Americans believe in God, while only 7% do not.  Baylor University has conducted similar polls which show that only 10.8% of Americans are not affiliated with a church or synagogue.  Moreover, the Baylor poll shows that conservatives are much more devout than liberals.  For example, 81.1% of conservatives believe that "there is ultimate truth," while only 52.2% of liberals believe that statement.  (Doesn't that explain a lot of the silliness of leftism?)

The profound conservatism of Americans is reflected in Gallup polls, which show conservatives outnumbering liberals in every state, and in all the other national polls which ask for ideological self-identification.  This conservatism is also reflected in the deep religious faith of the overwhelming majority of Americans.  These conservative, pious Americans are waiting for a leader who reflects their values.  Choose such a man or woman, and Republicans will win next November

American Thinker