Although the left and right ideological wings of the Democratic and Republican parties seem to grab all the oxygen in the room, a Pew Research study released late Thursday indicated “they make up a minority of the public.”
“The center is large and diverse,” the study noted, “unified by frustration with politics and little else.”
The study, in drawing its conclusions, sorted voters into groups based on their attitudes and values. Among the partisan voters, it said, are steadfast conservatives, business conservatives and solid liberals. Among the less partisan, less predictable voters are young outsiders (conservative views on government, not social issues), hard pressed skeptics (financially stressed and pessimistic), next-generation left (young, liberal on social issues, less so on social safety net), faith and family left (racially diverse and religious) and bystanders (young, diverse, on the sidelines of politics).
Below are some of the surprising findings inside the study:
• Questions on individualism provide a very telling story on the current state of politics but offer hope for the future. Only 29 percent of solid liberals say “most people can get ahead if they’re willing to work hard.” But 82 percent of the faith and family left, 77 percent of the next-generation left, 76 percent of young outsiders, 88 percent of business conservatives and 81 percent of steadfast conservatives say what has been true in the United States for more than 200 years — that individualism is a bulwark for success — is still valid.