Poll: ‘Conservatives’ on the rise

While it has appeared in previous polls that the Republican Party is increasingly becoming the party of white males, a plurality of Americans identified themselves at “conservative” in a survey released Monday.

The Gallup poll found that four in 10 said they were “conservative” while about two in 10 identified as “liberal.” Thirty-five percent said they were “moderate.”

Those findings show the percentage that identifies as “conservative” is on the rise, while the percentage that identifies as “moderate” is on the decline.

These numbers paint a more complex picture of the GOP. Earlier this month, a Gallup poll found that Republicans were becoming increasingly defined by white conservatives while Democrats were more diverse. In that survey, more than six in 10 Republican identified as non-Hispanic “white conservatives.”

Interestingly, Monday’s Gallup poll found that, like the previous survey, there is more uniformity in the GOP. Nearly three quarters of self-identified Republicans identified as “conservative.” Democrats were much more split between “liberal” and “moderate.” Four in ten Democrats said they were “moderate” while nearly the same margin said they are “liberal.”

All of this data seems to suggest that “liberal” is still taboo and that Democrats would rather identify as “moderate.” This also probably helps explain while liberal groups insist on being called “progressive.”

A few other interesting results in Monday’s Gallup poll:

By gender, more women and men identified as conservative than liberal.

And by age, conservatives enjoy the largest advantage among older voters.

There was a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percent in the poll.

jeremy.jacobs@digital-stage.thehill.com