The USA is a conservative nation

(CNSNews.com) - Self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in all 50 states of the union, according to the Gallup Poll.

At the same time, more Americans nationwide are saying this year that they are conservative than have made that claim in any of the last four years.

In 2009, 40% percent of respondents in Gallup surveys that have interviewed more than 160,000 Americans have said that they are either “conservative” (31%) or “very conservative” (9%). That is the highest percentage in any year since 2004.

Only 21% have told Gallup they are liberal, including 16% who say they are “liberal” and 5% who say they are “very liberal.”

Thirty-five percent of Americans say they are moderate.

During Republican President George W. Bush’s second term, the number of self-identified conservatives as measured by Gallup dropped, riding at a low of 37% as recently as last year.

According to new data released by Gallup on Friday, conservatives outnumber liberals in all 50 states--including President Obama’s home state of Illinois--even though Democrats have a significant advantage over Republicans in party identification in 30 states.

“In fact, while all 50 states are, to some degree, more conservative than liberal (with the conservative advantage ranging from 1 to 34 points), Gallup's 2009 party ID results indicate that Democrats have significant party ID advantages in 30 states and Republicans in only 4,” said an analysis of the survey results published by Gallup.

“Despite the Democratic Party's political strength-- seen in its majority representation in Congress and in state houses across the country--more Americans consider themselves conservative than liberal,” said Gallup’s analysis.

“While Gallup polling has found this to be true at the national level over many years, and spanning recent Republican as well as Democratic presidential administrations, the present analysis confirms that the pattern also largely holds at the state level,” said Gallup. “Conservatives outnumber liberals by statistically significant margins in 47 of the 50 states, with the two groups statistically tied in Hawaii, Vermont, and Massachusetts.”

It would seem that rather than follow the advice of people like Colin Powell and move the Republican party to the left in order to win elections that we should be seeking ways to appeal to those self-identified conservatives who are not members of the GOP.

I said in a previous post that the greatest threat to the survival of America as a free and prosperous nation is the attitude by many voters that the Democrat party is the party of the "common man". Even people who consider themselves conservative often think of the Republican party as representing only Wall Street and Fortune 500 CEO's - and, to be fair, being more pro-military.

The truth is that Wall Street brokers and bankers are far more likely to be Democrats than Republicans. The same is true for executives in very large corporations.

Fortune 500 corporations tend to like the left-wing regulatory state because all those Byzantine regulations and onerous taxes tend to strictly limit competition because only a large and well established company is likely to be able to afford the large number of lawyers and accountants needed to keep ahead of the government paperwork.

They also tend to like affirmative action because a large company with a large number of employees can better afford to create a large "corporate diversity" division and staff it with all the deadwood they are forced to carry in order to meet their diversity quotas. Small start-up companies don't have that luxury.

Rather than altering the GOP's position of issues to make ourselves more like the Democrats we simply need to aggressively frame the Democrats as being what they truly are. Socialists with a desire to drastically limit Americans' liberty and prosperity.

Look at the dramatic fall in Barack Obama's poll numbers after only a few weeks of conservative media shining the spotlight on his attempt to nationalize the health care industry.

More of this kind of truth-telling needs to take place and more elected Republicans need to grow a spine and take the lead in this effort.

If you want an example of how this is done just look at Sarah Palin.