Apropos of nothing in particular, here’s a familiar chart:
Things are slowly getting better, but there are still a lot more voters who self-ID as conservative than liberal. There are endless ways of trying to spin this result away, but they’re mostly special pleading and you should ignore them. This is basically what progressives are up against.¹
And while we’re at it, here’s how things look within our two major parties:
Republicans have gotten steadily more conservative and Democrats have gotten steadily more liberal. This polarization started when the South made its transition from mostly Democratic to mostly Republican, but then it just kept on going. Since 2000—well after the transition was complete—both parties have gotten substantially less friendly to moderates.
¹It would sure be interesting to see this on a state-by-state basis, wouldn’t it?
