One would think
that in a vibrant, responsive democracy, when the people have strongly-held
views, government leaders would be eager to put them into effect. But that thinking rarely operates when
conservative ideology is concerned. On issue after issue, conservatives in
office follow their ideological preferences, not only when they run counter to human
needs, not only when they fly in the face of fact, but also when they are
heavily unpopular with the American people.
Reputable polling organizations find that
conservative positions are out of touch with the views of most Americans on a
host of issues. Here are some recent examples, as illustrated by the findings
of the Gallup Poll.
In 2010 the Dream Act was favored by the
American people by a margin of 54 to 42 percent. It would grant legal status to young people
who were brought to America as infants or small children, have stayed out of
legal trouble and who go to college for two years or serve in the military. It
won by 14 votes in the U.S. Senate but conservatives stopped it on a
filibuster.
A
much larger percentage of Americans are in favor of a “path to citizenship” for
illegal immigrants if they have been in the U.S. a “long time, pass a criminal
background check, pay back taxes and a penalty, and learn English.” A whopping
87 percent agreed in a 2013 Gallup poll. Only 12 percent disagreed. The Senate
passed an immigration bill with these provisions by a wide majority with
support from both parties, but conservative opposition in the House of
Representatives has prevented it from even being brought up for a vote in that
chamber.
In 2013, Gallup found 53 percent of
Americans were against overturning Roe v.
Wade, the Supreme Court decision that gave women the right to an abortion.
Only 29 percent wanted the decision reversed. The same year found 78 percent in
favor of legal abortion under “all” or “certain circumstances” and only 20
percent wanting to be “illegal in all circumstances.” Yet that is what
conservatives, especially social conservatives, want to enforce. In 2013, over
50 new restrictions on abortion were passed in states where conservative
legislatures hold the majority.
Gallup asked Americans in 2013, “Would you
vote for or against a law that would require background checks for all gun
purchases?” 83 percent said “for” and 17 percent said “against.” Conservatives in the U.S. Senate blocked the
majority from passing just such legislation with a filibuster.
Conservatives continue to battle against contraception,
even though 89 percent of Americans feel contraception is morally acceptable and
only 8 percent do not. Even Catholics think so, by a margin of 82 to 15 percent.
Conservatives tried to use opposition to contraception to invalidate Obamacare.
Meanwhile, 98 percent of American women report using contraception at some
point in their lives.
58 percent of Americans were in favor of
legalizing marijuana against 38 percent opposed. This is even though just 38 percent said they
had ever tried it and only 6 percent said they had used marijuana in the past
month. Most, including those who do not use marijuana themselves, seem to think
this legal war is an exercise in futility.
In 2014, Gallup found Americans supported
same-sex marriage by 55 to 42 percent. In 2013, 52 percent of Americans said
they would, if given the chance, vote to make marriage equality the law in all
50 states, versus 42 percent who said they would vote no. The trend is also
noteworthy. From 1996 to 2008 the
percentage for marriage equality grew by an average of 1 percent a year and the
percentage against fell by 1 percent a year. But since 2009 the momentum has
accelerated. In ’09 opinion as sampled by Gallup was still 57 to 40 against. In
the ensuing four years the liberal view gained 3 percent a year and the
conservative view lost three percent a year, producing the current 8-percent
margin in favor. Conservatives, of course, continue to ignore the rapidly
gathering national consensus and remain against marriage equality.
Conservatives fought for the 2013
“Sequester” budget cuts to public services, even though 56 percent of the
American people felt if they were adopted “the economy will get worse.” Conservatives instead cast their lot with the
30 percent who disagreed.
Conservative congressmen, led by Sen. Ted
Cruz of Texas, orchestrated a government shutdown in late 2013 to try to stop
the implementation of the Obamacare health program. The Quinnipiac University
Poll found that Americans opposed the shutdown idea by an overwhelming margin
of 72 percent to 22 percent.
Prominent defense
conservatives such as Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham decry the idea
of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, and 47 Republican senators signed a letter sent to the ayatollahs of Iran telling them not to negotiate with America. Meanwhile, the CNN Poll
found Americans support direct negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program
by 75 percent to 20 percent.
A 2013 Kaiser Family Foundation poll on
deficit reduction asked people what they thought ought to be cut “if the
president and Congress decide to reduce the deficit by reducing spending.” Lopsided majorities were against any cuts to
public education, Medicare and Social Security, and strong pluralities were
against cuts to Medicaid and health insurance subsidies. Yet education is one
of the places where conservatives made major cuts in the recession, and the others
are consistently mentioned in conservative proposals to cut, privatize and
voucherize.
The people support clean campaign finance
practices, and liberals are fighting to overturn the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling. In that case, the court’s
conservative majority, by a 5-4 vote, threw out forty years of law and held
that unlimited corporate political contributions were fine. A 2012 Greenberg
Quinlan Rosner poll found that 62% of registered voters disagreed with the Citizens United decision. Yet
conservative leaders continue to back it.
The issue of income inequality continued
to gain greater importance as the prosperity of the wealthy surged in the
recovery while pay for most workers lagged behind. President Obama pushed for a
major hike in the federal minimum wage, from $7.25 an hour to $10.10. A
Quinnipiac survey in January 2014 found the American people solidly in support,
by the huge majority of 72 percent to 27 percent. Even Republicans agreed, 52
percent to 45 percent. Nonetheless,
conservatives, particularly economic conservatives, and the business community
were bitterly opposed.
Income inequality could be a ticking time
bomb for conservatives. A Pew poll in early 2014 found 65 percent of Americans
felt income inequality had gotten worse in the past ten years, and 69 percent
said government should take action to reduce the gap. Only 26 percent said
government should do little or nothing about it. A 2013 Gallup poll had found
that by a count of 59 percent to 33 percent Americans felt the distribution of
wealth in the country is unfair and should be “more evenly distributed among a
larger percentage of the people.” Another question in the same poll asked, “Do
you think our government should or should not redistribute wealth by heavy
taxes on the rich?” 52 percent said it should and 45 percent said no, it
shouldn’t. Don’t hold your breath waiting to see if conservatives will act to
implement the people’s choice on this one.
Time and again conservatives have
demonstrated they are little concerned with what the people actually want. The cases
you have just read provide plenty of examples on issue after issue where the
wishes of two-to-one, three-to-one, even up to ten-to-one majorities of the
American people are ignored in favor of following conservative ideology and
satisfying a small minority of conservative voters at the behest of an even
smaller fraction of wealthy backers.
This is a third and foundational weakness that accounts for a good deal
of the reason why conservative thinking doesn’t work—it so often ignores the needs,
the wishes and the plain common sense of the great majority of the very people
it purports to serve.
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