If you’re a politician, don’t call yourself a populist. And liberal isn’t much better.
Populist is the least popular of five common political labels, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters. It’s more fashionable to be viewed as a conservative, less so to be called a progressive, the label adopted by many liberals.
Forty percent (40%) of U.S. voters view being described politically as a conservative as a positive description. That’s up eight points from last September and even up three from just after the November 2008 election. Sixteen percent (16%) say conservative is a negative description, and 43% put it somewhere in between negative and positive.
In distant second place in terms of popularity is the political description progressive. Twenty-two percent (22%) now view that as a positive description, but that’s a 10-point drop from September and down 18 points from November 2008. For 35%, progressive is a political negative, and 36% place it somewhere in between.
