Conservatives trumpet, and liberals pooh-pooh, this latest Gallup survey of American ideological self-assessment. It includes that although Americans say they're becoming more conservative, they're not voting that way, and they're not acting that way. I think George Will's classic saying is relevant here: Americans tend to be temperamental conservatives and operational liberals.
Since the 1970s, there has always been a conservative tilt to voters' self portraits, especially since liberalism is still a discredited word to non-liberals. Perhaps this will change soon, as liberals are reclaiming liberalism (and the word, too), and as the Republican brand implosion over the last five years will trickle over to the word "conservative," too. The survey's results may reflect a difference between aspiration and identity; voters wish they could be more conservative than they are. Or it could reflect the month the poll was taken it: we've been debating the deficit, Obama's approval ratings are slipping, the economy is a mess, etc -- the excitement of the first few months of the new administration have waned a bit. If Gallup had taken the same poll a few months ago, they might have found some differences, which may or may not be significant;I wonder whether these marginal changes in political identity shift from week to week...or, rather, that there are enough Americans who use their reaction to events to determine their ideological identity so as to make it appear as if, when a snapshot is taken, a trend is seen. How can the country be conservative trending if it endorsed Barack Obama's liberal policies? This poll suggests that the answer is: it just... can. Americans seem capable of separating ideology and operation, of judging how one is doing something, rather than what one is actually doing.
"Perhaps this will change soon, as liberals are reclaiming liberalism (and the word, too)..."
In what way are the American liberals reclaiming either Classic Liberalism or American Liberalism? Aren't individual rights erased by an expanding government with limits in choices such as health care? Isn't the free market being limited? Could this government possibly be considered a smaller one? Isn't our private property being taken from us with such massive spending?
Perhaps less obvious and crucial; is there really a greater transparancy in government with the President's role-call press conferences and staged town-hall meetings? Can the Fairness Doctrine really be interpreted as increasing freedom of speech?
With that said, how is our left-wing becoming more like either previous definition of the word 'liberal'? Whatever it is they are becoming, how can any American with a passion for liberty and independence approve?
Twice as many Americans are Conservative as Liberal.
That will change after King Obama destroys the American Free Enterprise System.
After four grinding years of the worst presidency in history, no Liberal will ever be considered for high public office again.
And as Wanda Sykes suggested, among blacks Obama will become known as the half-white President.
You seem to be over-estimating the memory of the public. You seem to think that they will remember Obama's failures forever and never again vote for a liberal. But it seems to me that if you can forget King George and his eight grinding years of the worst presidency in history in just six months, that the rest of America will be able to forget Obama even quicker.