Conservatives take the lead! Can GOP capitalize?

A Gallup poll released yesterday gives more good news to those of us who want to pull back hard on the reins to stop President Obama from racing our country into the throes of Socialism at a gallop.  The results, based on a compilation of 10 different surveys conducted from January to May of this year, show more Americans identify themselves as Conservatives than either moderates or liberals, with nearly twice as many who side with the Right than those on the left side of the political fence.  Conservatives comprise 40% of Americans in 2009, moderates 35%, and liberals a paltry 21%.

In 2008, the Conservative-moderate-liberal mix was 37-37-22%.  So this represents an 8% gain in the numbers of self-identified Conservatives in the country, a 5.4% drop in Americans who call themselves moderates, and a 4.5% decline of the left-wing herd which wears the liberal brand.  Remember, these surveys include data from the early days of the Obama administration; before the $787 billion dollar “stimulus” package was passed, before his $3.4 billion budget, before the administration terrified New York City residents with the Scare Force 1 photo-op, before he showed anti-American Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez some brotherly love, before he bought a bankrupt General Motors with our money, etc.  In those early days, you can assume more Americans clamored to identify themselves with the brand of Obama, so this poll is likely skewed in the President’s favor. 

The question is, can the GOP capitalize on this shift in political identity?  Many life-long conservatives have speculated before that the ’06 and ’08 election results were not due to the American people shifting to the left, but rather the Republican party abandoning its Conservative principles.  Specifically, the abandonment of fiscal and economic conservatism.  Though the MSM loves to paint the GOP as dangling over the Right side of the political spectrum, that’s not the case at all.  I and many like me were absolutely disgusted with Bush’s inability to control spending–with a majority in both houses of Congress.  Truth be told, many of us don’t feel like we’ve had a real Conservative in the White House since Reagan.

The GOP, in its quest for power and control, sacrificed its conservative principles in the hopes of gaining a few left-leaning voters.  I often wonder if this is a strategy to gain favor with the MSM to undo the left’s obvious advantage in that arena, possibly with the mindset that once the press was neutralized the Conservative message would have a better platform to sway the American people.  But that may be giving the party too much credit.  More than likely, the shift to the left was nothing more than an effort to gain that most corruptible of corruptibles, power.  But how long does it take to convince the fat-cats at the GOP?  How many elections must we lose before they admit their tactics have failed to displace our adversaries?

Message to GOP:  We’re never going to convince the left-wing MSM that we’re right and the Obamanots are wrong!  Conservative America wants Conservative candidates.

Right now, Americans trust Republicans more than Democrats.  That, coupled with Americans shifting toward Conservative ideology should tell the GOP 2010 had better be the year we returned to running real Conservatives.  It’s time to return to principle if we want to regain power.