Far more Americans continue to describe themselves as conservatives than as liberals, according to recent polling data.
Based on 20 surveys conducted by USA Today and Gallup in 2011, 40 percent of Americans describe their political views as conservative or very conservative, compared with only 21 percent who call themselves liberal or very liberal.
Conservatives also outnumber self-described moderates, who come in at 35 percent.
While conservatives have outnumbered liberals for decades, the percentage of Americans who see themselves as conservatives rose significantly soon after the election of President Barack Obama in 2008.
That is very likely an understandable reaction to his failed liberal policies -- a rebuke that voters delivered clearly to the president in the 2010 midterm elections.
The American people have good reason to deliver a similarly pointed message to the president this November, when he will be up for re-election.