What Does it Mean to be a Conservative Democrat?

[RainDog]

24. Yet polls continue to indicate Americans are more liberal than either political party

while, at the same time, both political parties ASSUME the nation is more conservative than it is.

So, that "middle" is much farther to the left than our national political conversation would have someone believe. Also, people i.d. more readily as conservative since the republican assault on liberal politics - but when questioned about actual positions, they, too, are more liberal than the govt. that is supposed to represent them.

for reference - here's that article about Americans being more liberal

http://www.democracyjournal.org/arguments/2013/09/politicians-think-american-voters-are-more-conservative-than-they-really-are.php

When we compare what legislators believe their constituents want to their constituents’ actual views, we discover that politicians hold remarkably inaccurate perceptions. Pick an American state legislator at random, and chances are that he or she will have massive misperceptions about district views on big-ticket issues, typically missing the mark by 15 percentage points.

What is more, the mistakes legislators make tend to fall in one direction, giving U.S. politics a rightward tilt compared to what most voters say they want. As the following figures show, legislators usually believe their constituents are more conservative than they actually are. Our attitude measurements are most accurate on the questions about same sex marriage and universal health insurance – and in both instances the legislators’ guesses about their constituents’ views were 15-20 percent more conservative, on average, than the true public support for same-sex marriage or universal health care present in their districts.

Our study also found that politicians don’t learn in the normal course of events. After November 2012, we posed the same questions again to some candidates. Even after conducting campaigns and seeing the results, politicians did not arrive at more accurate perceptions of constituent views—not even those who had spent more time talking to voters. Much remains to be learned about why U.S. legislators think constituents are more conservative than they truly are, but researchers have found that politically active citizens tend to be wealthier and more conservative than others. Politicians who want to represent all the people in their districts need to keep this in mind.

What this reality really demonstrates, to me, is that we don't have candidates and, therefore, office holders who represent the will of the voters - I know I didn't, nor anyone I know in my state who considers him or herself liberal, when we had to vote for a sexist and homophobic and, seemingly, racist now guy who was the nominee (in a regressive state).

The political conservation, iow, is limited to the views of those in power - economic, military, etc. and not the views of those this nation is supposed to represent in, say, the legislature.

The marijuana issue is another one that demonstrates the HUGE GAP between what citizens and the govt. want.