The Goat Pen

America is a great country where a citizen does not have to languish in the oppression of Southern poverty, but can start life anew in the fruited economic plains of the upper Midwest...

In August of this year, Pew posed a very similar question (note to survey wonks: Pew used a five-point scale, versus six in 2005), but the results were very different. Although average voters continue to see themselves as just right of center, they now place themselves twice as far away from the Democratic Party as from the Republicans. In addition, Independents now see themselves as significantly closer to the Republican Party, reversing their perceptions of six years ago.

There’s another difference as well. In 2005, Republicans’ and Democrats’ views of their own parties dovetailed with the perceptions of the electorate as a whole. Today, while voters as a whole agree with Republicans’ evaluation of their party as conservative, they disagree with Democrats, who on average see their party as moderate rather than liberal. So when Independents, who see themselves as modestly right of center, say that Democrats are too liberal, average Democrats can’t imagine what they’re talking about.

Another Gallup finding that should alert Democrats is the ongoing collapse of public confidence in government. A survey released earlier this week found that Americans now believe that the federal government wastes 51 cents of every dollar it spends, the highest estimate ever recorded. Twenty-five years ago, that figure stood at only 38 cents. While estimates of waste at the state and local level remain lower than for the federal level, they have also risen by double digits in recent decades.

Professor Tiger wrote:

America is a great country where a citizen does not have to languish in the oppression of Southern poverty, but can start life anew in the fruited economic plains of the upper Midwest...

Been there. Done that. Someday I'll go back to languishing. The only things I'll miss about the upper midwest are Chicago and non-Chicago public schools.

AlabamAlum wrote:Atlanta is like Chicago in several ways, but as for a city with a lot to do and a lot of culture, New Orleans > Chicago.