New poll shows insight of Republican beliefs

Honestly, this poll surprised me. But it also gave me some hope.

We have been living with an admin that wanted to divide and conquer by stiring up the differences between the right and the left. So often I have watched C-SPAN's Washington Journal and have heard the people favoring Bush go on and on how wonderful he is. And the Talk Radio shows where the host riles up the people and tells them what to say. And the hatred was so extreme from these people. And the Religious right stiring the embers of division didn't help either.

But this poll gave me a little hope that their are some reasonable people in this nation.

From the Hill:

Poll shows many Republicans favor universal healthcare, gays in military
By Aaron Blake
June 28, 2007
A large nationwide poll of Republican voters shows that an increasing number consider themselves conservative, that about half favor universal healthcare and allowing gays in the military, and that the vast majority say spreading democracy shouldn’t be the United States’ top foreign policy goal.

The poll, conducted by GOP consultant Tony Fabrizio 10 years after he conducted a similar study, also casts some doubts on the conventional wisdom about moral-issues voters, thought to be the key constituency for President Bush in 2004. It showed that the group hasn’t grown significantly in recent years and is surprisingly willing to vote for former New York
Mayor Rudy Giuliani despite his differences with it on social and moral issues.

The survey of 2,000 self-described Republican voters, titled “The Elephant Looks in the Mirror 10 Years Later,” showed that 71 percent consider themselves conservative, a 16 percent increase over the 1997 numbers.

Fifty-one percent of the GOPers said universal healthcare coverage should be a right of every American, and 49 percent favored allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

Those two issues continue to divide the party, though, with more than 40 percent opposed to both. Fabrizio emphasized that “the devil is in the details” on healthcare, and that providing a plan that pleases the entire 51 percent would be difficult.

Nearly four in five Republicans said that U.S. foreign policy should be based on protecting economic and national security interests, versus 16 percent who preferred basing it on spreading democracy.

Fabrizio described it as a test of support for the “Bush Doctrine.”

“We’re not about spreading democracy around the world; we’re about doing what’s best for us,” Fabrizio said. “Even the [pro-Iraq war] ‘Bush hawks’ don’t buy it.”

“Bush hawks” was one of seven groups into which the survey categorized voters. The others were “moralists,” “government knows best Republicans,” “Dennis Miller Republicans,” “fortress America Republicans,” “heartland Republicans” and “free marketeers.”

The “moralist” section of the party — those focused overwhelmingly on social and moral issues — has grown only slightly since 1997, to just less than a quarter of Republicans.

At the same time, economics-focused “free-marketeer” and “heartland-Republican” voters decreased drastically, from about half to less than 20 percent, while two new foreign policy-focused groups — “Bush hawks” and “fortress America Republicans” — took in most of their ex-members.

Of course further down in the article the poll shows that what is important to the Republicans now is leadership and think that (ugh) Giuliani fits that bill. What a bubble burster that was!! At least the majority are in favor of Universal Health CAre and Gays in the military.