A new Morning Consult research poll shows a seven-point decrease over the past five years in those identifying as “very liberal,” “liberal,” or “somewhat liberal.” It dropped from 34 percent to 27 percent. However, it has not resulted in an extensive increase in conservative alignment.

The moderate camp of voters seems to be growing. Democratic data scientist David Short said:

“The historical march has been that ‘liberal’ is gradually increasing as the secular, college-educated population has increased in a way that’s been divorced from thermostatic forces … If it’s thermostatic backlash, thermostatic backlash affecting ideological identification is new.”

Per the newest Morning Consult’s annual State of the Parties survey, 73 percent of voters view the Democratic Party as liberal, increasing from 67 percent in mid-2017. Seventy percent of voters with college degrees view the Democratic Party as liberal compared to 62 percent in mid-2017. Hispanic voters went from 65 percent to 75 percent who view the Democratic Party as liberal.

In the recent survey, 42 percent of voters said that the Republican Party is “too conservative,” compared to 36 percent saying the party was too conservative in 2017. Forty-five percent of those surveyed said the Democratic Party is “too liberal,” up from 40 percent in 2017.

Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini said:

“In 2020, with all the talk of a Hispanic shift, and an African American shift to a lesser degree, it was really kind of a shift among Hispanic conservatives. It was like, people already have this fixed ideological predisposition, and they’re just aligning that to their vote choice … But what’s also happening, and reinforcing that, is the underlying ideological tendencies are also shifting in conjunction with, or caused by, vote choice.”

As Democrats identifying as liberal dropped from 60 percent to 55 percent, Republicans who identified as conservative increased from 70 percent to 77 percent.

The majority of independent voters identify as moderate. In 2017, 34 percent identified as moderate; now, 43 percent identify as moderate. The number of independents who leaned Democrat and Republican has dropped since 2017. In 2017, 30 percent of independents identified as liberal/slightly liberal; now, just 18 percent identify as liberal/slightly liberal. As for independent-leaning conservatives, in 2017, 31 percent identified as conservative/slightly conservative, compared to 26 percent in 2022.

Ruffini added:

“The Republican Party is a conservative party. The Democrats are not necessarily a liberal party. The problem is its elite actors are polarized … That’s what the last few years have been about, with Republicans hoping to capitalize on wokeness, the police and left-wing activist trends that get more play on the left than are actually warranted based on who their voters are.”

The independent vote remains in the air during elections; however, this is a better poll for Republicans because more Independents identify as conservative/slightly conservative than as liberal/slightly liberal.

As the Biden administration continues to implement far-left radical policies, more moderate voters will move away from their party. The Republicans should take advantage of this and win them over by proposing and implementing policies that work for hard-working Americans.

According to Morning Consult, the survey research was conducted among more than 8.6 million voters since 2017.