Are most Americans conservative?

In the 1920's Republicans came to power because of a massive backlash against World War I, growing support for prohibition, and the perception of Democrats as being pawns for the "backward unpatriotic south."

The election in 1916 doesn't look very different from the election results of 2000. The south supported the war, the north did not. The north wanted more money spent at home, and less on imperilism.
http://uselectionatlas.org/USPRESIDENT/

Strangely enough prohibition grew as an issue during the twenties, along with a growing backlash to Darwinism. With the selling of alcohol made un-Constitutional in 1920, anyone who opposed this was viewed as a dangerous outlaw or unpatriotic trouble maker. Now if someone supports legal abortion, they are just another babykiller. If someone votes against the Republicans, they are only helping "the axis of evil." If someone opposes the teaching of intelligent design or the bible in public school, they are immoral and radical haters of God.

For years Democrats have tried to build a coalition based on deficit reduction, healthcare reform, and protecting the environment. This avoids controversy, but it doesn't get us any more votes! By supporting deficit reduction, Republicans shred us for supporting tax increases and weakening our military. By supporting healthcare reform Republicans can attack us for wanting rationed healthcare and growing the size of government. By protecting the environment Republicans can rip us for being looney, antifamily, gas taxing tree huggers.

Republicans win by screaming about high taxes, screaming about the axis of evil, and calling themselves conservative.
This gets them votes, but why is conservative considered so moral and liberalism just an unpatriotic form of evil?

the true version of the modern conservative...

somehow conservatives have destroyed the meaning of liberalism, but what makes the word conservative sound so great to voters?

To pursue their individual perceptions of life, liberty...and all that stuff. Most Americans don't give a shit about abortion, gays, or school prayer. (If you press them, they'll say those are personal decisions and none of their business.)

They just want livable wages and (quite possibly) national health care. How hard is that for the Democratic Party to understand?

Remember, fundamentalists were targets for populism in the past. There are not any progressive populists out there to whip them up, which is a shame. The rest of the country, the other 70% or so have consistently taken the right positions when given information. Look at information on environmentalism in the 60's and 70's. That led many to conclude things had to chagne. Look at it in the 90's and this decade, zip, zilch, nada. I doubt that CM would even cover the end of the world, they're so lazy and bought off.

Ultimately, if you control the vote counting you can determine the outcome.

If you control the media, you control the content.

Have a fair test: fair distribution of information for a period of time; then poll the people. Look at Iraq, it's still not fair and the signficant majority of Americans have said enough. They know.

but part of your comment brings me back to a basic question. Why do voters, whether Republican or Democrat, like being called conservative?

Is it because liberalism is now viewed as crazed radicalism, or the word conservative is somehow associated with modesty?

Liberal = open = loose = libertine = embarrassing
Conservative = together = tight = controlled = venerable

Ronald Reagan (a masterfully shrewd marketer if there ever was one) managed to make "liberal" a completely negative concept. Remember "the L-word" BS he preached for so long? It stuck, and it continues to stick today. And the GOP seized that brand, elevated Reagan to sainthood, and have managed to give the "conservative" position marketing legs which it still enjoys.

I respectfully disagree with some of the other posters in this thread - American voters are not stupid, lazy, or ignorant. They merely respond to the mass marketing which is completely woven into the fabric of our society - IMO. The challenge for us as liberals is to reinvent ourselves using a strategy that will resound with voters and overcome the negative niche we've been cornered into. The surest way for that to happen will be if we come up with - and champion - a spokesman - a figure of the stature of you-know-who - who will lead that charge.

the 1950's when everyone was happy, mom was baking cookies, the kids were good and followed the rules, and dad had a great job that supported the whole family. This slice of Americana appeals to people. People don't want to think about all the things that democrats say are problems. They don't want to think about AIDS, health care crisis, budget deficits, outsourcing, and they don't want their kids to be gay or be a pregnant teenager. These things can be loosely associated with liberals and people don't like those things.

"why is conservative considered so moral and liberalism just an unpatriotic form of evil?"
Look around this board at some of the posts from our extreme leftists.

We've got one thread calling for flag burning and another bashing Hillary Clinton as a "fascist" for opposing flag burning.

Earlier today I saw a post calling for the destruction of the US military.

I still haven't seen the post calling for the destruction of the U.S. military, but that isn't a liberal message. But one could argue that conservatives in the south embraced the same thing during the Civil War.

And yet conservatives are not seen as rebels, but as patriots. As I mentioned earlier, burning the flag is considered liberal..but why is it ok to leave it hanging in the rain or throw it in the trash?

Democrats need to attack conservatism as unpatriotic and immoral, perhaps our parties will then use more accurate terms to describe themselves. Being a liberal doesn't mean one is any less conservative, and being conservative doesn't make one an opponent to liberty.

Be sure to show us "radical neocons..who embrace Nazism" discussing how much they want to burn the American flag....

"why is it ok to leave it hanging in the rain or throw it in the trash?" Because those aren't being done as deliberate acts of contempt or political theatre.

"Being a liberal doesn't mean one is any less conservative"
Huh?

just as a few radical liberals burn flags that don't belong to them, radical neocons spray paint swastikas on public and private buildings in this country. Both of these crimes should be as forms of vandalism, but patriotism should not be defined by a democratic government.

"why is it ok to leave it hanging in the rain or throw it in the trash?" Because those aren't being done as deliberate acts of contempt or political theatre.

When someone burns their flag, that is deliberate but not necessarily contempt! Sometimes it is done because burning a worn flag is considered more patriotic than trashing it. However..flying it in the rain or trashing clearly violate the rules on how to treat the flag. I think the soldiers were fighting under the flag not only because of it's colors, but because it represents our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

"Being a liberal doesn't mean one is any less conservative"

What I am stating is that one can support less government as a conservative, while embracing greater civil liberty for each individual. One can be like Hitler or Stalin, and reject both civil liberties and conservative government that spends our tax money endlessly.

If you want to pretend burning a flag IN THE SENSE IT'S BEING CHEERED FOR HERE by some is not contempt for America, or spin away some of the extremist remarks being spouted on this board with specious rhetoric, you only reinforce what I said...and you demonstrate better than I could explain why this "message" doesn't resonate with every day Americans.

And if nothing else sinks in, perhaps you ought to wonder why you're defending stuff HERE by comparing it to spray-painting a swastika.

US military?

"Each day the US stays in Iraq is a day closer to the collapse of the mighty American military. The day the military collapses from exhaustion, will be the day in which the people of the world will no longer have to fear American bombs on their cities or US Marines on their shores to secure their natural resources for America's endless appetite.
Stay in Iraq, and die... just like all colonial powers!"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2292013

Really think that's a message America wants to hear? Or do you think that alienates the average American?

through umpteen post to interrupt what your referring too?

1. Find the post and then link it. It will bring it up every time.

I find it hilarious that now you don't want to look.....

But instead i'll smile sweetly, point to post 25 in that thread....and expect you to deliver a public apology.

close to what you made of it, sounds like a Rumsfeld silly spin

And I agree very much with IG Yes, it is what America wants to hear. Bring the troops home home

"Each day the US stays in Iraq is a day closer to the collapse of the mighty American military. The day the military collapses from exhaustion, will be the day in which the people of the world will no longer have to fear American bombs on their cities or US Marines on their shores to secure their natural resources for America's endless appetite.
Stay in Iraq, and die... just like all colonial powers!"

"Earlier today I saw a post calling for the destruction of the US military."

This poster isn't calling for the military's destruction, this poster is arguing we should pull out because the occuption of Iraq hurts the military!

He ends by by saying "Stay in Iraq, and die... just like all colonial powers!"

His point is simple, America doesn't need to suffer the fate of imperilist nations if we change, but perhaps many voters misunderstand this message for the same reason you did.

He did say some of what you said he did, but you also said that post "called" for the "destruction of the U.S. military". No this poster is arguing that Bush's imperilism may do that, and that we can stop him!

and reveling in it happening. The only surprise is that he didn't append "Yippee!" or "Hahahaha" to his odious remarks.

"perhaps many voters misunderstand this message for the same reason you did."
Perhaps iif it wasn't such a toxic melange of America-hating and horseshit, you wouldn't have to be sitting here spinning so frantically.

"that post "called" for the "destruction of the U.S. military"."
Which it did. And then some of you "progressives" wonder why you have trouble connecting with ordinary Americans, who don't look forward with glee to the destruction of the US military.

As strange as that may sound, you have to think of how real-world society was structured a hundred years ago. Women could not hold meaningful jobs and had no ability to provide for their children. The prohibition movement assumed the absolute dependence of women to be an inescapable fact of life. Think about it. In 1900, could anyone realistically assume otherwise?

Women were 100% DEPENDENT on men. Therefore, if a husband fell prey to alcoholism, his wife and children could be totally ruined. There was no social safety net. There were no services to help provide for the needs of children. There was no chance of a woman ever getting a job that could provide for her family.

Prohibitionists rightly saw this as the normal state of affairs in the American society of 100 years ago. In that day and age, it was very reasonable to think of women as having no hope of providing for themselves. As a result, prohibitionists argued that a husband who fell prey to alcoholism and did not provide for his family was destroying more than just himself. He was destroying both his wife and the new generation he had fathered. If he did not earn the money it took to support all of them, his wife was much more likely to fall into prostitution. The children would then be left vulnerable to all kinds of crime or vice. Given the America of 100 years ago where government literally provided NOTHING to the poor, this kind of pessimistic outlook was really a very level-headed view of how bad life might become.

Always remember that the social movements of the distant past (like prohibition) were based on assumptions about life which have since been completely changed by modern politics. Should a woman today be unlucky enough to be abandoned by an alcoholic husband, she at least has the real-world chance of finding a good job and/or getting government assistance to help cope with the problems that she'll face as a mother. Her life will be tough but at least she'll have a real chance of making it. Take that same woman with children and plop her down in the same situation 100 years ago and she'd have almost no other option than begging, prostitution, or both.

and profoundly ignorant

It is unfortunately true. I can't debate my friends/family because it is like beating the shit out of a quadriplegic. Their ignorance of their own country and history appalls me.

Ignorance and apathy are the enemies of liberty, and they are both "embedded" into the fabric of our lives.

liars (not just Bush and Cheney) and con-artists are held accountable for their deception, conservatism will remain "in". Look at all the people who get away with blatant lies....not just politicians, but countless rightwing radio talkshow hosts & all the religious zealots who have been getting away with it for years. The sad thing is that millions of sheep believe those lies, and until WE do a better job at exposing the lying that's going on, "conservative" will be considered a moral word and "liberal" will be consdidered a whacko one.

We need a unanimous vocal outcry from our side that doesn't just hint at the lies by using the word "mislead". We need everyone with a powerful voice and media connections SCREAMING to the public that rightwing hate radio hosts are LIARS, that Bush and Cheney are LIARS, that Falwell and Robertson are LIARS, that those people are all in it for the money, and if we repeat those screams often enough, people will eventually realize they've been duped by the conservatives.

"Conservative" is a good word and "Liberal" is a bad word only because we've been letting them get away with it. We haven't done a good enough job in educating the American public about how fraudulent conservatives are.

We need to stop letting them push us around. We need to scream out loud that the con in conservative stands for CON-ARTIST.

The Northeast was actually a bastion of pro-war WASP types like JP Morgan (and, sadly Theodore Roosevelt) who supported and financed groups to prepare for the war. The biggest level of opposition actually came in the Midwest and Populist farm areas. Ironically the farm belt turned on Wilson and the Democrats in the 1918 Midterm elections because of Wilson's policies toward farm prices during the war, particularly cotton.

In several ways and I'm not ashamed. I'm very much a fiscal conservative...you don't spend what you don't have and you spend what you have as prudently as possible. I'm definitely conservative in my views of the environment. I want to conserve as much of the natural beauty and clean up the messes we've made of the land, air and water. I'm also a Conservative Jew.

Inversely, I can say even the most rabid wingnut can be liberal. For example...Rushbo is sure liberal with the use of that Oxycontin and O'Reilly is sure liberal in his use of the facts and truth.

Cheers...

About half the population describes itself as politically moderate. The other half is shared between liberal and conservative, with a tilt toward conservative. Something like 50M-20L-30C.

but it doesn't mean they know what they are talking about.

Ask an American to define "Conservative" and "Liberal" and you will find very few who even know what the terms truly mean. They are buzzwords nowadays, not definitions.

And yes, those are the same numbers we have been seeing forever. The 30 percent dictate everything...the 50 percent follow along with the 30 percent (because they aren't really leaders because their position is defined by the two competing factions), and the 20% are never listened to by anyone, even by their own party and even when they are correct in their assessments and have been for some time.

A real fun place America has become.

want to live freely and safely. Also, Americans tend to "not give a damn less about anything than themselves". Sadly, it is easy to whip up people into a state of fear when they see something bad happen. Even if it does not affect them directly, they can fall into a state of fear. That is what hurts liberals/progressives/Democrats in the electoral process.

America is something such as this:

2005: 45M/30C/25L

one thing but do another...A generally fucked up society overall, VERY CONFUSED.