Reagan Label Is Biggest Plus
by Scott Rasmussen
Issue 140 - September 30, 2009

"Progressive” is becoming more of a dirty word, but all political labels – except “being like Ronald Reagan” - are falling into disfavor with many U.S. voters, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

“Liberal” is still the worst and remains the only political description that is viewed more negatively than positively. Being like Reagan is still the most positive thing you can say about a candidate.

Just 15% of voters say they view the description of a candidate as politically liberal as positive, down four points from last November. Forty-one percent (41%) see it as a negative description, up five points from the earlier survey, while 42% say it’s somewhere in between.

Aware of their low ideological ratings, political liberals have shifted in recent times to calling themselves progressives, but that name, too, has begun to lose its luster. Thirty-two percent (32%) now consider it a positive to describe a candidate as politically progressive, but that’s down from 40% just after the last election. Twenty-seven percent (27%) see it as negative label, up from 16%, and 36% put it somewhere in between the two.

But “conservative” also has lost ground. In November, 37% said they had a positive opinion of a candidate described as politically conservative, but only 32% feel that way now. Twenty-nine percent (29%) see conservative as a negative description, up seven points from the earlier survey. Thirty-seven percent (37%) think it’s somewhere in between.

Even “moderate” is a bit more in disfavor these days. Thirty-five percent (35%) say moderate is a positive political description, down from 40%. Only 12% say it’s a negative, but that’s up four points. Largely unchanged are the 51% who say it’s somewhere in between.

Being “like Ronald Reagan” is the one political description that hasn’t changed, even though some in his own party have suggested that Republican candidates should distance themselves from the late president. In November, 43% had a positive opinion of a candidate compared to Reagan, and 41% still feel that way now. Twenty-five percent (25%) view it as a negative political description, compared to 26% in the previous survey. Thirty-one percent (31%) say being like Reagan is somewhere in between a positive and a negative.

In a Wall Street Journal column last fall, I noted that President Obama won the White House by campaigning like Ronald Reagan.

The downturn in the views of all other ideological labels is notable since the November findings were roughly the same as those in July 2007 after a Democratic presidential debate in which Hillary Clinton insisted she would rather be called a progressive than a liberal.

Scott Rasmussen is president of Rasmussen Reports and has been an independent pollster for more than a decade. Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. This national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports September 8-9, 2009. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Post this article to your Facebook profile