Gallup Poll Finds Americans Want Republican Party to Stay Conservative

From LifeNews.com
By Steven Ertelt

A new national Gallup poll finds Americans want the Republican Party to stay conservative -- which appears they want the GOP to keep its pro-life stance on abortion. The party has been pro-life for decades and has a longstanding platform calling for a Constitutional amendment to protect human life.

The new poll, conducted from November 13-16 finds 59 percent of Republicans want the party to become even more conservative with 28 percent saying it should stay the same.

Just 12 percent of Republicans want the GOP to become less conservative.

Nationally, 57 percent of Americans want the party to become either more conservative (37%) or stay the same (20%) with 37 percent wanting it to become less conservative.

Looking at the crucial group of independent voters, some 57 percent of them want it to either become more conservative (35%) or stay the same (22%) while only 35 percent want it to become less conservative.

And it is no surprise that Democrats are the only group to want the party to shed it's historically conservative viewpoints, with 56 percent saying so. Still, 25 percent of Democrats want the GOP to become more conservative and 13 percent want it to stay the same.

That doesn't mean Americans view the party, which has nominated pro-life candidates in every presidential election since 1980, favorably.

The poll found just 34 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the party and a whopping 61 percent holding an unfavorable view.

"After suffering major blows in the election, the Republican Party is experiencing its worst image rating in a least a decade," the Gallup Poll reported.

Democrats, who have put forward pro-abortion presidential candidates in every election since 1980 and saw their most recent abortion advocate, Barack Obama, win narrowly earlier this month, are viewed more favorably.

Democrats have a favorability rating of 55 percent, about the same as last month.

Also, 91 percent of Democrats approved of their party and how it is operating compared with just 78 percent of Republicans.

The poll found the view Americans have of the Republican party tracks almost identically with the view they have of President Bush. With him out of the picture next year, the GOP can redefine itself and the Democratic Party will have to be content with hitching its fortunes to a President Obama.