For years, the Republicans had Americans convinced that "liberal" was a dirty word, but that seems to be changing -- at least when it comes to social issues. This doesn't really surprise me. Anyone who has looked at the polls about same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization, relations toward Cuba, and other liberal social issues, could see that the public had moved radically toward the liberal positions. It's just nice to know that the public is no longer afraid of the word liberal when discussing these issues.
But when it comes to economic issues, the public still is not ready to call themselves liberal (see chart below). I think this is more a perception than a reality though. They have yet to shake off the GOP myth that liberals are big spenders, while conservatives are fiscally responsible -- even though this has been shown to be untrue in the last couple of decades.
I believe (and polls have shown) that a significant majority of the public actually agrees with the liberal position on many economic issues -- like protecting and expanding Social Security, protecting Medicare, raising the minimum wage, raising taxes on the rich, helping the poor and disadvantaged, helping the unemployed, making corporations pay their fair share of taxes, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, etc.
I expect that perception to change though, and catch up with the reality -- especially if the congressional Republicans continue to protect the rich while punishing everyone else, and the Democrats continue to pursue policies that puts the bottom 90% first.
These charts were made from a new Gallup Poll -- done between May 6th and 10th of a random national sample of 1,024 adults, with a margin of error of 4 points.
