Poll reveals public attitudes swinging toward Democrats' values
Public allegiance to the Republican Party has "plunged" during George W. Bush's presidency, according to a Los Angeles Times report on a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
"The survey, by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, found a 'dramatic shift' in political party identification since 2002, when Republicans and Democrats were at rough parity," report the Times. "Now, 50% of those surveyed identified with or leaned toward Democrats, whereas 35% aligned with Republicans."
And while the unpopularity of the Iraq war and Bush play a storng role in these trends, the survey shows that the public has shifted toward Democrats on a host of other issues, including support for government aid to the disadvantaged, the use of military force, and "traditonal family values."
"Iraq has played a large part; the pushback on the Republican Party has to do with Bush, but there are other things going on here that Republicans will have to contend with," Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Center, was quoted as saying. "There is a difference in the landscape."
The report adds that the current gap between Republican and Democratic party identification is the largest since Pew began collecting that data in 1990.
Excerpts from the article:
#
The survey found that the proportion of those expressing a positive view of Democrats has declined since January 2001 — when Bush took office — by 6 percentage points, to 54%. But the public's regard for Republicans has cratered during the Bush years, with the proportion holding a favorable view of the GOP dropping 15 points, to 41%.
Although Republicans rode to political power calling for smaller government, support for government action to help the disadvantaged has risen since the GOP took control of Congress in 1994. At that point, a Pew survey found that 57% said the government had a responsibility to take care of people who could not take care of themselves; now, 69% said they believed that.
On the other hand, support for Bush's signature issue — a strong, proactive military posture — has waned since 2002, when 62% said that the best way to ensure peace was through military strength. In the recent poll, 49% said they believed that.
On social issues, the survey found that support for some key conservative positions was on the decline. For instance, those who said they supported "old fashioned values about family and marriage" dipped from 84% in 1994 to 76% in the recent survey. Support for allowing school boards to have the right to fire homosexual teachers has dropped from 39% in 1994 to 28%.
#
LINK TO FULL ARTICLE
|
