To many people, it might seem like the country is trending to the left politically. But the exact opposite is true – for both major parties.
According to a Pew Research Center survey of 1,505 adults, both Republicans and Democrats want their party to move to the right. So Republicans want their party to become more conservative, and Democrats want their party to become more moderate and less liberal-leaning.
“Most Republicans want to see their party move in a more conservative direction. 53% of Democrats want the party to move in a more moderate direction while 40% favor a more liberal direction,” Pew Research Center tweeted. “Looking ahead, most Republicans want to see their party move in a more conservative direction. Nearly six-in-ten Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters (58%) say they want the GOP to move in a more conservative direction, compared with 38% who want it to move in a more moderate direction.”
Interestingly, Pew said that the yearning for a turn toward the right politically is similar to what has happened “following other recent midterm and presidential elections.”
The survey also looked at how partisans viewed their own parties.
Democrats who responded to the survey said they viewed their party favorably at a rate of 49%, while 47% viewed it in a negative way. This is down from 53% in September 2018.
What’s also notable is that in November 2016, after the presidential election, 49% of Democrats, according to Pew, said they wanted their party to lean even more in a liberal direction than it already was.
Meanwhile, 42% of Republicans who responded to the Pew survey said they viewed their party favorably, and 54% viewed it unfavorably. Pew said this is consistent with what has been happening in the Republican party over time.
In addition to inquiring about the preferred direction of political parties, the survey also asked respondents other key questions, such as what they thought the top priorities for the president and Congress should be. To that question, the most respondents said the economy, with the second-most common response being health care costs followed by education, terrorism, Social Security and Medicare.
Survey respondents were also asked how confident they are in the two major parties working together to resolve issues. Not surprisingly, the most common response was that they are not very optimistic. It is beyond clear to the American people just how divided the parties are currently.
While that factoid alone may seem like a negative, it is certainly encouraging for conservatives everywhere that the country is trending toward the right, at least according to the Pew survey.
The survey also suggests that the far-left voices that are popular in the Democratic Party don’t really represent their base. Sure, people like Senator Kamala Harris are calling for a massive overhaul of America’s healthcare system, but the truth is that they only people really encouraging that are the people who will vote for anything with the letter ‘D’ next to it. That’s not how most of the country functions.
~ Liberty Planet
