Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Why Does Gallup Hate Reporting Conservatives' Overwhelming National Majority? - Bruce Walker


by Bruce Walker

Gallup presents data showing a preponderance of conservative strength...and then uses the titles of its articles announcing the data to downplay the big story.

The latest Gallup Poll on February 22, 2019 has news that ought to be happy for conservatives. In 43 states, conservatives outnumber liberals and in 6 states — Hawaii, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, and Washington — liberals outnumber conservatives. California is evenly split. The title of this article was actually better than most: "Conservatives Greatly Outnumber Liberals in 19 U.S. States."

Those who have followed my articles over the last ten years know that every single polling organization — and practically all of these are leftist in tilt — show a conservative majority in America, and it has been the same over the last fifty years. Many conservatives, perversely, find this good news as unlikely as if they were self-deluded leftists, but if the leftist establishment could possibly make the data produce a conservative minority, trust me they would.

Gallup, while it presents the data showing an overwhelming preponderance of conservative strength when the data are looked at on a state-by-state basis, uses the title of its articles announcing the data to downplay the big story.

So when Gallup Poll data in 2009 showed that every single state in America had more conservatives than liberals, surely, that would be the title of the article, but it was not. Instead, the title of the article with the polling data was this earth-shaking news: "Political Ideology: 'Conservative' Label Prevails in the South." Wow! Who would have ever thought that?

In 2010, when Gallup Poll data showed that conservatives outnumbered liberals in every state but Rhode Island, naturally, the title of the article in which Gallup presented this data was "Wyoming, Mississippi and Utah rank as most conservative states. The District of Columbia and four New England states rank as most liberal." Aside from the fact that three of those four New England states had more conservatives than liberals and that the District of Columbia is not a state...

In 2011, when the Gallup Poll data showed that conservatives outnumbered liberals in all of the 50 states, Gallup boldly announced: "Mississippi rates as Most Conservative US State." Which title seems to give more information: the one published by Gallup or this: "Conservatives Outnumber Liberals in Every State of the Union"?

In 2013, the Gallup Poll on the ideological composition of states showed that every state except Rhode Island and Massachusetts had more conservatives than liberals. So, naturally, the title of the Gallup Poll article was: "Alabama, North Dakota, Wyoming Most Conservative States. Americans slightly less conservative, slightly more liberal."

In 2016, when Gallup data showed that only four states — New York, Connecticut, Vermont, and Massachusetts — had more liberals than conservatives, the title of the Gallup article was "Wyoming, North Dakota and Mississippi Most Conservative," which was hardly a shock to anyone. Gallup, again, chose to ignore a big story for an essentially meaningless title to an article in which the polling data revealed a story the ordinary American would never have suspected. 

The bottom line is always the same: polling organizations are simply another arm of the leftist establishment, and they employ whatever is needed to marginalize or minimize conservatism. That is why all of the polls by all the polling organizations downplay what their own data show. 

What is most perverse, though, is how many conservatives scoff at this data, which, for more than fifty years, in every single poll conducted by many different polling organization, have shown that conservatives greatly outnumber liberals.

The usual response is something like this: "Americans like the goodies they get from Washington and so don't really know what conservatism means. The data are meaningless." We ought to accept these polls, however, for several different reasons: (1) the polling data stretch back more than half a century and include every poll; (2) these polling organizations are establish leftist, so, if anything, the polling is skewed to find a liberal majority, which it doesn't; (3) respondents nearly always have the option of "moderate" or "don't know," which means that the respondents are specifically selecting conservatism as a choice; (4) conservatism has been demonized during these fifty years, so choosing "conservative" takes courage; and (5) even when conservatism is separated into "social" and "economic" conservatism, the results are the same.

There is no reason, really, to question the fact that, if anything, the conservative advantage is greater than the polling data suggest. We ought to be happy with the grudgingly given good news in these polls. When we start seeing ourselves the way the left wants us to be, then we turn victory into defeat.


Bruce Walker

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/02/why_does_gallup_hate_reporting_conservatives_overwhelming_national_majority.html

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