Defining What Makes a Democrat, Republican Stirs a Debate

Trey Ditto is correct when he says that political polling, including the Magid survey he critiques, is not particularly effective in capturing the complexities and nuances of political philosophy or even the less subtle variations in belief of the respondents in most polls. But that is not the job of political survey research. Surveys are designed, instead to capture the location and direction of public attitudes, opinion, and behavior at a particular point in time.

The most productive way of doing this when gauging opinions about political issues on which there are clearly different viewpoints is to ask survey respondents questions that require them to choose between those viewpoints. That was done in the Magid survey. Moreover, the questions asked by Magid were based on and very similar or identical to standard items asked for decades by reputable and respected survey research organizations such as the University of Michigan Survey Research Center and the Pew Research Center.

In spite of Mr. Ditto’s suggestion that they were slanted toward the Democrats, all of the Magid questions were clearly effective in drawing out the partisan attitudes of respondents. On each of the questions a majority of those who identify as or lean Democratic favor the “liberal” alternative, while a majority of respondents who identify as or lean Republican favor the “conservative” alternative.

Specifically, most Democrats favor an activist approach in society and the economy (70 percent), a foreign policy based on building alliances (57 percent), and a government that ensures that everyone has a basic standard of living and level of income (65 percent). By contrast, most Republicans favor an approach that keeps the government out of society and the economy to the greatest possible extent (53 percent), a foreign policy based on military strength (51 percent), and an approach that lets each person get by on their own economically as much as possible (59 percent). Independents who indicated absolutely no preference for either party fell in between these partisan attitudes, further validating the survey’s results.

The validity of the Magid questions can also be seen in the statistically significant variations that have coincided with recent changes in America’s political environment. The questions were first asked in January 2009 when positive attitudes toward the newly inaugurated president and his policy approach were at their peak.

Since then, in a reflection of the rise of the Tea Party movement, the GOP recapture of the House in 2010, and a 2012 presidential election that is almost certain to be closer than that of 2008, the overall responses on all of the questions have moved in a more “conservative” direction. For example, the number who prefer that the government stay out of society and the economy as much as possible rose from 26 percent to 31 percent, while support for governmental activism has fallen from 58 percent to 53 percent. Support for a foreign policy approach based on military strength is up from 29 percent to 37 percent, while the number favoring an approach based on strong alliances is down from 55 percent to 47 percent. During this same period, support for letting each person get by on their own economically has gone from 30 percent to 34 percent, while the percentage that favor the government ensuring a basic standard of living and income has dropped from 53 percent to 49 percent.

Mr. Ditto concluded his critique with a plaintive statement that “when studies like [the Magid survey] come out it reminds [him] that Republicans are losing this messaging battle, which will have decade long consequences in terms of persuading the next generation of voters.” We will leave it to others to decide which, if either, party is doing of more effective job of communicating its beliefs. But, we are confident that the Magid research provides an accurate depiction of American political attitudes at this time in history.