Bernie is attracting conservative primary voters who want 'less liberal' policies

[Cali_Democrat]

By Ed Kilgore

Amidst all of the talk about the legitimately important phenomenon of self-identified liberals (or "very" liberals) showing up in the Democratic presidential primaries, there's something in the shadows that also should be noted: Bernie Sanders is receiving significant support from the small but (in some states) significant share of Democratic primary voters who do not identify as liberal or as moderate, but as conservative.

In Oklahoma, Sanders's most impressive Super Tuesday trophy, 19 percent of Democratic primary voters described themselves as "conservative." They went for Bernie 54/22. Coming at ideology from another angle, 28 percent of Oklahoma primary voters said they'd prefer the next president "change to less liberal policies" than Obama's. They went for Sanders 59/24.

In Massachusetts, there weren't enough self-described "conservatives" in the exit poll sample to create a candidate preference finding. But asked the same question as in Oklahoma about the policies of the next president, 16 percent opted for "less liberal policies." They went for Sanders 60-38.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/03/sanders-attracting-conservative-primary-voters.html

[NurseJackie]

1. It's a puzzling phenomenon. I wonder what they're thinking. Sure is strange.

[Cali_Democrat]

2. Interesting poll from late last year:

Very liberal voters have preferred Hillary.

DU is not representative of the real world.

------------------------------

Hillary Clinton leads with 56% to 28% for Bernie Sanders and 9% for Martin O'Malley. Clinton has dropped slightly since our last poll from 59% to 56%, while Sanders (26% to 28%) and O'Malley (7% to 9%) have each seen 2 point gains in their support. Clinton leads with every group we track. The race is closer among younger voters (50/35), white voters (51/33), and 'very liberal' voters (55/36). Clinton has more dominant advantages with seniors (68/21), African Americans (67/17), and voters who identify as just 'somewhat liberal' (65/23).

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2015/12/trump-leads-grows-nationally-41-of-his-voters-want-to-bomb-country-from-aladdin-clinton-maintains-bi.html

[NurseJackie]

4. "DU is not representative of the real world."

You can say that again!!

Go, Hillary! We love you!

[timmymoff]

9. They prefer honesty, it isn't that hard to figure out if you bother looking.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. Who are they? Conservatives?

Thank you in advance.

[timmymoff]

24. blue dogs

who dislike Clinton.

[BreakfastClub]

15. I think they're confused b/c their party has been calling Hillary

a socialist, communist, etc., etc., for over 20 years, so they figure she must be bad, and therefore the enemy of my enemy is my friend? That's my interpretation. Very odd though.

[NurseJackie]

22. You may be on to something.

[Octafish]

3. Democrats stood by and allowed the pukes to make ''Liberal'' a dirty word.

Oh well. What goes around...

[whatchamacallit]

5. I welcome their unwitting support and ultimate disillusion

[AzDar]

13. ^ This.

[Agnosticsherbet]

6. I grew up in Oklahoma, earlier 60's. Everybody liked their grandma, no one wanted her as President.

Oklahoma still has 882,686 registered Democrats. Those in my family are pretty conservative. I would not be surprised if they made their choice becasue Sanders is a man. The vast majority of my Oklahoma family will vote for the Republican in November.

[Bluenorthwest]

7. "We, as Democrats right now, should tap into the discontent of Republicans. I want some Obama

Republicans." - Presidential candidate Barack Obama, in the year 2008.

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. So electability is a bad thing now? I can't keep up.

People want populist change and they are going to vote for it in the general election.

[GreatGazoo]

20. yes, what is the list now...

small donors,
states outside the South,
independents,
young people,
people who don't watch cable news

and now

crossover electability are "bad"

[thesquanderer]

11. Interesting comments there

like...

Conservative for Sanders here. The main reason I'm supporting him is because he's the only genuine candidate and the only one attempting to make an end to political corruption while his rival is corruption incarnate. The Republicans are the same except not subject of a criminal investigation.

Fixing a broken system is more important than sticking to strict conservative or liberal lines.

and

The big theme in both parties is anti-establishment, which boils down to being opposed to Wall Street's domination of American economic and political life. So that 's the potential crossover connection from amorphous rightist nihilism to Bernie's more positive program. If Bernie embraces a program transferring economic power from Wall Street to Main Street, he can create the needed bridge.

[vintx]

17. Good excerpts... Populism is favored by lots of voters

and that's what Bernie offers, or so it seems to me.

[Vattel]

12. But even in South Carolina he got more votes from self-described "very liberal"

voters than Clinton.

[UglyGreed]

14. Hillary has attracted the likes of

Ben Stein, Christy todd Whitman, Max Boot and of course her old pal Henry Kissinger to name a few..... but that is good.

[Attorney in Texas]

16. There is a phenomenon where people are choosing someone they trust more but agree with less on the

Last edited Fri Mar 4, 2016, 07:54 PM - Edit history (1)

issues because their faith in the government has plummeted to a dishearteningly low level.

This is why some conservative voters are nevertheless supporting Sanders - they may not agree with him on all issues but they don't feel like he is lying to them.

[OZi]

19. This.

I would also add that getting money's influence out of politics and doing away with legalized bribery shouldn't be pigeonholed. i.e. neither ignored nor locked into a specific political leaning.

[Number23]

18. Talk about something that flies in the face of DU "wisdom"

But this has been noted over and over and over again. Hillary is doing and has always done exceptionally well among liberals.

Interesting. K&R

[GreatGazoo]

21. Explains part of how Sanders polls so much better against Trump than Clinton does.

[democrattotheend]

23. This is not as surprising as you might think

FWIW, my libertarian boyfriend said that he would prefer Sanders over Clinton or Trump because he thinks Sanders is at least honest and not in the pocket of Wall Street. I have not been able to convince him to switch his registration and vote for him in the primary, but there may be other people like him who are doing so.

A few of these votes may be coming from Republicans who are voting for Sanders because they think he will be a weaker general election candidate, but given how intense the competition is on the Republican side I would doubt there would be a lot of strategic crossovers.