Revolt of the Middle, by E.J. Dionne Jr.

Partisanship is NOT what the American public desires
Strong majorities favor both moderate candidates and Independent candidates for office

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – May 19, 2005 – With the Senate edging closer to a showdown over the filibuster and judicial nominations, it may appear as if partisanship is dominating the country, but a new Harris Poll shows that the American public does not feel the same way. Regardless of ideology, when asked if they favor or oppose candidates who are conservative, moderate or liberal, over three-quarters (79 percent) favor moderate candidates while only 48 percent favor conservative candidates and 41 percent favor liberal candidates.

These are the results of a new Harris Poll of 2,322 U.S. adults surveyed online by Harris Interactive^® between May 4 and 10, 2005.

When asked about party label instead of ideology, we see interesting differences. A majority of all adults (67 percent) favors candidates who are Independent, while 46 percent favor Republicans and 56 percent favor Democratic candidates. Whether we look at it by party or ideology, there are certain commonalities. Whether a candidate is a Conservative or Republican, the public views them similarly. The public has a better perception of moderates over Independents, but both are still strongly favored. There is, however, a large difference between how the public perceives Democrats and how they perceive Liberal candidates, with the party label having higher favorables than the ideological label.

Part of this perception may be due to perceived influence groups have within each of the parties. Slightly over one-third (38 percent) believe extreme liberals have too much influence in the Democratic party, while 22 percent think they have too little influence. Compare this with over half (53 percent) who believe extreme conservatives have too much influence in the Republican party and the 10 percent who believe they have too little influence. Less than half of Americans (48 percent) believe the Religious Right has too much influence in Washington.

One interesting thing to note with these numbers is some Republicans also feel this way. One-quarter (26 percent) of Republicans believe the Religious Right has too much power in Washington and 24 percent think extreme conservatives have too much power in the Republican party. On the Democratic side, only 18 percent of Democrats think extreme Liberals have too much influence in their party. When we examine how moderates and Independents feel, we see that they are more likely to believe extreme Conservatives (Moderates, 64 percent and Independents, 63 percent) have too much influence as compared to extreme Liberals having too much influence (moderates and Independents, 38 percent).

We also asked people to compare today’s politicians with those of just ten years ago. First, when asked if there were more or less politicians who were willing to vote regularly beyond their party label ten years ago as compared to today, 33 percent said more, 16 percent believe there is the same number of politicians and 25 percent believe there are less politicians than 10 years ago. We then looked at Members of Congress and asked if they are more or less corrupt than they were 10 years ago. Over half (56 percent) believe Members of Congress are more corrupt, with 24 percent saying much more and 32 percent saying somewhat more corrupt. Over one-third (38 percent) believe they are neither more nor less corrupt and only 6 percent say they are less corrupt. When we examine these results by party, half or more of each party believes Members of Congress are more corrupt today – 50 percent of Republicans, 60 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of Independents.

As we draw closer to the judicial showdown, one note of caution to politicians from the American public – party line voting is not what they want. More than four out of five (85 percent) of adults believe we need more elected politicians who will vote independently rather than on party lines. While, not surprisingly, 94 percent of Independents and 90 percent of moderates want independent voting, so do 88 percent of liberals, 87 percent of Democrats, and 79 percent of Republicans and conservatives

”Thinking about politicians in general, do you generally favor or oppose candidates who are . . .?”

		Ideology			Party ID
	Total	Cons	Mod	Lib	Rep	Dem	Ind
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Conservative – Favor	48	96	38	12	82	28	42
Conservative – Oppose	52	4	62	88	18	72	58

Moderate – Favor	79	69	93	72	78	79	89
Moderate – Oppose	21	31	7	28	22	21	11

Liberal – Favor	41	8	38	96	10	65	42
Liberal – Oppose	59	92	62	4	90	35	58

”Thinking about politicians in general, do you generally favor or oppose candidates who are . . .?”

		Ideology			Party ID
	Total	Cons	Mod	Lib	Rep	Dem	Ind
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Republican – Favor	46	83	41	13	96	10	30
Republican – Oppose	54	17	59	87	4	90	70

Independent – Favor	67	58	68	75	46	68	95
Independent – Oppose	33	42	32	25	54	32	5

Democrat – Favor	56	23	62	85	13	95	54
Democrat – Oppose	44	77	38	15	87	5	46

		Ideology			Party ID
	Total	Cons	Mod	Lib	Rep	Dem	Ind
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Too much influence	38	67	38	12	66	18	38
Too little influence	22	8	18	58	5	39	23
Just the right amount of influence	15	10	20	17	10	21	16
Not sure	25	16	24	13	19	21	24

		Ideology			Party ID
	Total	Cons	Mod	Lib	Rep	Dem	Ind
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Too much influence	53	19	64	86	24	77	63
Too little influence	10	27	4	5	21	4	7
Just the right amount of influence	16	37	14	3	36	5	11
Not sure	21	17	18	6	19	14	19

		Ideology			Party ID
	Total	Cons	Mod	Lib	Rep	Dem	Ind
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Too much influence in Washington	48	21	55	80	26	61	60
Too little influence in Washington	21	39	16	7	33	17	15
Just the right amount of influence in Washington	15	26	14	7	26	7	14
Not sure	16