U.S. Political Party Identification
For the first time since polls began asking the question ‘Do you consider yourself a ______’, both the Democrats and Republicans have significantly lost brand association with Americans.
I consider myself ‘an Independent’ overtook both Democratic and Republican brand identification in early-2011 and has held its #1 identification spot ever since.
Voter Identification by Party as of 2012.09.30 PollTracker
The biggest loser appears to be the GOP.
Loss of identification with being ‘Republican’ is strange since the the percentage of Americans that consider themselves ‘conservative’ remains a strongly dominating 46% over the 20% that identify as ‘liberal’. The Conservative brand has remained strong since 1980, never once dropping below 40% per Gallup.
Voter ideologic identification per Gallup.com
One response from some Republicans is that loss of identification with the GOP just represents those conservatives unhappy with the party itself, and thus they declare themselves to be independent.
HOWEVER, when Independents are asked which party they lean towards then the Democrats have consistently come out ahead (Gallup Sep 2012) which can only be interpreted as a significant number of center-right Americans find it difficult to sympathisze with the Republican Party itself as the better choice over the Democratic Party.
Party Identification as of September 2012 per Gallup.com
Sources: http://polltracker.talkingpointsmemo.com/contests/us-party-identification and http://www.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx
