Conservatives Are So Conservative They Think the Congressional GOP Are Moderate Squishes
Eric Cantor lost because hard-core voters think his kind keep selling out to Obama. The idea is insane as they are.
Among the 3,672 reasons youve read and heard for David Brats victory over Eric Cantor, heres one you havent seen. This explanation doesnt have anything to do with Cantor palling around with lobbyists, or with Laura Ingrahams one-liners. Its about ideology, and its pretty straightforward: Self-identified conservatives in 2014 are really conservative, and they increasingly think that Republicans in CongressRepublicans in Congress, mind youare a bunch of namby-pambies.
You want numbers? I got numbers. Last month, centrist Democratic group Third Way, released a study called The State of the Center. The report is not just another poll. Its a really comprehensive and unique piece of work that yields more illuminating results than any poll. It has many elements, but heres the part of interest to us. The group asked 1,500 Americans to identify themselves on an ideological scale of 1 to 9, 1 being the most liberal and 9 being the most conservative. Then these respondents were asked where they would place Democrats in Congress, Republicans in Congress, Barack Obama, and their ideal president. The answers are fascinating and jaw-dropping in that way that these kinds of findings about conservatives are, alas, no longer jaw-dropping.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/13/conservatives-are-so-conservative-they-think-the-congressional-gop-are-moderate-squishes.html