Anyone upset that Morning Consult found more self-described moderate Dems than liberal Dems, please [View all]

[highplainsdem]

keep in mind that they were asking people for how those terms fit WITHIN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

NOT asking if people would consider themselves "moderate" in a spectrum from the farthest left to the farthest right in US politics overall.

I'm bringing this up because it seemed some people were upset by the terminology, since the Democratic Party IS a liberal party, left or center-left in its policies and platforms.

Link to the thread about that poll finding

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287410592

which had the subject line

Morning Consult replies to AOC's comments on the Democratic party being too big a tent


That thread links to the tweet from Morning Consult, linking to their summary of their poll findings on how Democrats describe themselves.

I think, after seeing some of the reactions in the earlier thread, that I should link to the PDF of the complete survey:

https://morningconsult.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/80278_190920_crosstabs_SPD_Democratic_RVs_v2_JB_STACKED.pdf


You'll have to look at page 241, near the end of that PDF file, to see the options respondents were given.

They were:

Liberal
Conservative/Blue Dog Democrat
Democratic socialist
Moderate Democrat
Don't know / No opinion


I think some of the confusion about what those respondents meant by "moderate" was due to Morning Consult changing the "Moderate Democrat" choice in their survey to just "Moderate" in their graph showing that bloc of 44%, and in their summary article at https://morningconsult.com/2019/09/12/more-democrats-say-the-democratic-party-is-liberal-and-theyre-ok-with-it/

When you look at the survey itself, it's clear that the people identifying as moderate are saying their views would be considered moderate FOR A DEMOCRAT.


And btw, if anyone is wondering why so many Dems would identify themselves as moderate Dems...I think the answer is in how far left the left wing of the party has gone, especially those who call themselves democratic socialists.

I consider myself a liberal. I've been a liberal for as long as I was politically aware (which started when I was 10, when JFK was running against Nixon).

But compared to democratic socialists, in a spectrum that includes them, I could be considered a moderate.

And I'm fine with that description, too, as long as it's understood that means moderate Democrat. Which is still a liberal.