Gautam, et al,
I'm writing to retract my previous message. I reject your categorization of me as being out of the mainstream. Moreover, I found your message a little short on what I'll call intellectual honesty.
First, you admittedly pulled your numbers out of your ... um ... head, whereas this thread was discussing *actual* numbers from a poll that has been conducted for 15 years by the Pew Research Center. Guess which ones I consider to have more weight?
Second, your four groups of 20% are skewed to the right. Why didn't you have five groups:
Very Conservative 20%
Conservative 20%
Moderate 20%
Liberal 20%
Very Liberal 20%
-- Source: My AssUsing the above categories, which at least provide a centered spectrum, feel free to provide your own numbers.
Third, I don't understand why your four categories only added up to 80%, leaving out 20% of the population. Do you think that the opinions of 20% of Americans don't count, or that 20% don't have any opinions? That is certainly heading in the direction of at least one finding in the Pew report: 63% of respondents feel that "Most elected officials don't care what people like me think."
Perhaps your story would be better served with these groupings (with no bullshit numbers): Extremely Conservative, Very Conservative, Moderately Conservative, Mildly Conservative, Lunatic Fringe.
Returning to meaningful results of an actual poll, the categories and percentages under discussion are:
Right-leaning:
Enterprisers 9%
Social Conservatives 11%
Pro-Government Conservatives 9%Centrist/Unaffiliated:
Upbeats 11%
Disaffecteds 9%
Bystanders 10%Left-leaning:
Conservative Democrats 14%
Disadvantaged Democrats 10%
Liberals 17%As you can see, the Liberals *as defined by the Pew report* are the largest bloc. The "mainstream," one might say.
For the three general groupings that the Pewsters created, the percentages are:
Right-leaning 29%
Centrist/Neither 30%
Left-leaning 41%Thanks,
Dave
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