Gallup also released results on Political Ideology:
2008 2011 Change
Conservative 37 40 3
Moderate 37 35 - 2
Liberal 22 21 - 1
Other 4 4 NC
I guess that's a little surprising. In 2008 the unemployment rate was just under 5%. Now it's around 9%. Also, the DJIA was over 13000 at this time four years ago. Then it started to sink. We only recovered to 12000 in February of 2011. I would have guessed that poverty favors the backers of big government. It could be that people hear "liberal" and think of classical liberal rather than "American Liberal" but I doubt that. Maybe it's simply the huge national debt. When we think of finances, we can't help thinking of the national budget, and if we see "liberal" as big spenders, it scares us a little. That would explain it.
