America's Ideology

[Gabu]

A properly educated public, however, would be inclined to favor less federal statism, because people would realize that most federal programs are unconstitutional.

It never ceases to amaze me the extent to which libertarians seem to believe that the only reason they lose is because they're misunderstood, or because the public is not knowledgable enough, or whatever.

Anyway, I can't really answer this poll.  According to CNN in 2004, 21% consider themselves liberal, 45% consider themselves moderate, and 34% consider themselves conservative.  I personally think that asking what the ideology is of "the average American" is essentially a completely meaningless question given how diverse any population is, even if it is answerable by finding the average.

[Gabu]

It never ceases to amaze me the extent to which libertarians seem to believe that the only reason they lose is because they're misunderstood, or because the public is not knowledgable enough, or whatever.

I certainly did not mean to imply any such thing. I was speaking about constitutional issues, not political ones.

Well, you said that a "properly educated public" would "be inclined to favor less federal statism", which sounds a lot more like a comment on their political views than simply their thoughts on what is and isn't Constitutional.