A Gallup poll on liberal attitudes is a bit like polling 12-year-olds on whether they like cell phones. Therefore, the outcome of their most recent liberal attitudes poll comes as a welcome surprise: even Gallup concedes that liberalism has more or less had its day.

Today, only 20% of Americans view themselves as liberal; as many as 40% consider themselves staunch conservatives, while 36% consider themselves moderates. A political “moderate” is what liberals call a conservative who is not a libertarian, by the way.

Think about that. One in five Americans is a liberal. Reading the internet, you would think they were a vast majority of people. Fortunately, ten months of Obama, Pelosi, Biden, Reid, Frank, and others has pretty much forced Americans to take a good look at what they believe.

There is more. Much more.

More Americans believe there is too much government involvement in business.

The popularity of labor unions is at its lowest point in history. Today, only 48% of Americans do not want unions destroyed. Interestingly, the drop in popularity appears to be as fast as it was in 1961, but the decline continues whereas it was fairly brief in 1961.

Most Americans want firearm laws left alone or actually relaxed. Go guns!

Nearly all Americans want immigration levels held steady or actually reduced. B-b-b-ut, if we tighten immigration laws, who will vote for the liberal candidates?

On 2008, Americans were tied on the issue of the government promoting conservative values. This has now split apart, as more Americans want America to promote conservative values again.

These signs are very good that this country is starting to pull its head out of the liberal sand. Curiously, Americans are about tied on the issue of abortion. This is the first time in decades, though, that Americans are trending pro-life.

And as reported all over the blogosphere, Americans are rapidly tiring of global warming issues. Most Americans still think there is a climate issue pending, but support is falling fast. Remember that the poll incorrectly combines “accepting there is validity” wtih “belief the issue is horrendously serious.” Your Gormogons, for example, do not dispute there could be climate change; we just do not believe the evidence is strong enough to warrant conclusive action. As one reads through the poll questions, one sees where anything slightly in favor of global warming has been combined to offset the rise in outright disbelief. The only fairly phrased question was whether or not Americans belief global warming is a threat in this lifetime, with a simple 60-38 against the idea. By reducing the issue to a yes/no, one finds Americans clearly do not support immediate action or reactive legislation.

Many popular polls suffer from inadequately phrased questions. For example, one of the Gallup poll questions was whether the person worries a great deal, a fair amount, only a little, or not at all about the pollution of rviers, lakes, and reservoirs. But the categories are not defined: what is “a fair amount?&#148 What’s an unfair amount? And who would say they don’t worry at all? Secondly, what do we mean by pollution? The Czar opposes polluting rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, but does not know how much polluting goes on in Muscovy. Probably little. The biggest issue out here is people pouring yard waste into storm drains so that grass clipping promote algae growth on our waterways. Is that pollution?

Even so, these signs are very good that this country is starting to pull its head out of the liberal sand. The Czar will surprise readers by hoping that liberalism is never totally wiped out—not only do we sometimes need challenging ideas to think about, but we need people to park our cars, fetch us our food, and use up our stagnating illegal drug supply. Remember, if it weren’t for liberals, all we would have to gripe about would be sports.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.