POTUS Approval by Comparison
A nice chart of presidential approval ratings since Truman:
What’s in a Name: “Homosexuals” Edition
Remember the polling that showed how Americans’ negative attitude toward anything labeled with the word ‘tax’ flips when you change the label to ‘offset’? Well, now you can do the same trick with ‘homosexuals’ in the military:
Just 44 percent of Americans support “homosexuals” serving openly in the military, if you use the word “homosexuals.” But change that word to “gay men and lesbians” and the poll flips–suddenly 58 percent of the same sample poll sample suddenly support this group serving openly in the military. In other words, perhaps 14 percent of Americans don’t want “homosexuals” to serve openly in the military, but are happy to have “gay men and lesbians” in the same positions.
Via Michael Scherer at Swampland.
Are Americans More Conservative in Their Old Age?
A few weeks ago I wrote, “Old people tend to be conservative.” That’s certainly the conventional wisdom, anyway. But is it true?
It depends on what people mean by “conservative.” It also depends on what people mean when they call themselves “moderate” or “liberal.” And, of course, it depends on which people count as “old people.”
To get a sense of the difficulty of sorting people by ideological label, consider the term “moderate.” Some people might call themselves “moderate” to avoid unnecessary antagonism in conversation. Some use it as a hedge, giving them room to change their mind or develop an opinion later, if necessary—a smart tack if you know you don’t have all the relevant information for taking sides on a political issue.
Gallup polling from January-May 2009 confirms that the portion of the population identifying as conservative increases with age, as shown in this graph:
But the same polling shows that 21% of Democrats identify as conservative. Only 4% of Republicans identify as liberal. That imbalance should at least make us wonder whether we’re really talking about sincere and knowing ascriptions of ideology here, or if instead we’re just observing attitudes about the labels we are using. The numbers don’t appear to match up neatly with recent years’ electoral outcomes that put liberals and their partisans in charge of the White House and both chambers of Congress.
But even if it is true that Americans become more conservative in some sense when they reach 65, it doesn’t translate into gains for the Republican party, the bastion of mainstream ideological conservatism. In fact, the percentage of people identifying as Republican plunges dramatically between the ages 63 and 66 and declines steadily after that, as this next graph, also from Gallup, shows:
The trend for Democratic identification is much more stable as age increases, and even shows some steady gains among men over 65. Identification as Independent begins rising from people’s mid-20s, is relatively flat in the 40s-60s range, and begins climbing again in the mid-60s.
The long and short of it is, nobody knows what it means when 40% of Americans say they are conservative, 35% say they are moderates, and 21% say they are liberals. Maybe the only people who really know what they believe are the 4% who have “No opinion.”
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