Does this chart make sense?
New polling gives a visual for where voters see themselves
America is a center-right country.
This reality is not only difficult for liberals to grapple with, it is hard for anyone to visualize. Collapsing all of politics into a left-right spectrum is imperfect, but still informative. Because voters are clear where they place themselves: to the right of center.
A new poll from Third Way gives a clear visual:
To gain a deeper understanding of these ideological currents, we also asked voters to place themselves, Harris, and Trump on a scale from 0 to 10—with 0 being completely liberal and 10 being completely conservative. The mean response for Harris was 2.45, while the mean response for Trump was 7.78, indicating that both were viewed about as far away from the middle (5) with Trump being 0.23 points further off-center than Harris. However, voters mapped themselves at a slightly right of center 5.63. That means Harris was perceived as 3.18 points to the left of how voters viewed themselves, compared to Trump being perceived as 2.15 points to the right. While a one-point difference may not seem significant, these ratings are like a Richter scale, so when voters put themselves that much closer to Trump, it’s an indication of a real problem for Democrats.
This is a replicable finding, and one that also applies in local contexts.
Inspired by similar Third Way research years ago, we applied this approach in Massachusetts.
Not surprisingly, voters in the reliably Democratic state were more liberal than voters nationally, placing themselves just a nudge left of center.
But, more importantly, they discerned significant differences between two of their state leaders. The relatively unpopular Senator Elizabeth Warren, whose left-wing firebrand approach has led to her running behind other Democrats, was perceived as much more liberal than the more popular pragmatic Governor Maura Healey.1
Post-election frustration has returned many progressives to feel despair, and focus on things we cannot change.
We are in the early stages of factional debates over how Democrats should moderate and move towards the median voter. But do not let the reality be denied: however defined, voters placed themselves closer ideologically to Trump than Kamala.
Find more detail in Third Way’s full report here. Or better yet watch Lanae Erickson’s presentation of it here from the NewDEAL Leaders gathering last week.
As seen in Politico, “Healey’s decision to ditch her progressive-prosecutor image for a more moderate gubernatorial persona … what’s intriguing here is the evidence that Healey’s play is starting to pay off. Voters see Healey as hewing closer to their moderate proclivities than staunchly progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren.”
When Donald Trump was elected in 2016 I realized how much more conservative the U.S. is than I thought. And as the country is aging it is probably getting more conservative. It is also interesting that while the country is conservative, what were once considered "out there" perspectives such as gay rights have become a lot more mainstream.
Keep in mind that voters were deluged with disinformation that they voted on. Of course they see themselves that way. We HAVE to fact check. Especially every single thing that calls itself news. If you are telling the truth why would it matter ? People this time unfortunately voted on a pile of lies that the poorer people thought Trump would HELP them, instead he actually scoffs at them for being poor. Middle class too unfortunately. He admits that he always does favors for the very richest amongst us..Because then they “owe” him. How scary is that? That is not democracy and people did not vote on the truth, but a man who wanted to say anything to get himself out of jail free. People were duped. Huge swaths. He is a good con.