FADING LIBERALISM? - 9:51 P.M. ET:  What always strikes me is the way liberals cooperate in their own destruction.  From the ignoring of the crime issue in the 1960s to the contempt for national defense in the decades since, liberals seem willing to do so much, in their warm, cozy way, to win the loving contempt of the American people.  And they destroy other liberals who don't go along with the leftist party line, especially those liberals, like Joe Lieberman, who care about defending the country.

But is the liberal hour passing?  Some poll results show, as Byron York points out, that it may be:

A new Gallup poll shows a sharp increase in the number of people who say they want the government to promote "traditional values."
Gallup's question was simple: "Some people think the government should promote traditional values in our society. Others think the government should not favor any particular set of values. Which comes closer to your own view?" In the new poll, taken in the first days of September, 53 percent of respondents say they want the government to promote traditional values, while 42 percent say they do not want the government to favor any particular set of values. Five percent do not have an opinion.

Here is the trend:

Last September, when Gallup asked the same question, the public was split down the middle on the issue, 48 percent to 48 percent.

This reinforces what Frank Luntz told our group yesterday - that traditional values still rank strongly with the American people. 

...Gallup writes. "The results by party and ideology…suggest that respondents understand traditional values to be those generally favored by the Republican party."

Again, we see that great opportunity opening for Republicans, if only they can seize it. 

And we also see that independents are turning against the current regime, something picked up in other polls:

The recent change in favor of traditional values has been most pronounced among independents, among whom Gallup says there has been a "dramatic turnaround." Last year, independents were overwhelmingly in favor, by 55 percent to 37 percent, of the government not favoring any set of values. In the new survey, those numbers are almost reversed, with 54 percent saying the government should promote traditional values and 40 percent saying it should not.

York's conclusion:

The Gallup numbers also suggest that Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate have fundamentally misread their own victories. Did voters elect Democrats because they desperately wanted national health care? Sprawling and expensive environmental regulation? Federal deficits triple the size of just a few years ago? No. The voters elected Democrats because they were sick of Bush and Republicans. Now Bush and the GOP are gone and out of power. Democrats are doing what they thought the voters wanted. And it turns out the voters didn’t want that at all.

COMMENT:  York, I think, fundamentally gets it right.  The revulsion toward President Bush and the GOP was largely a creature, I believe, of the national press.  The Republicans must learn what Ronald Reagan practiced - the ability to speak over the heads of the pressmen, directly to the American people. 

The values debate is heading in our direction.  But the trend must be turned into electoral victory next year, and that means good candidates, a good platform and well-run campaigns that defy the media.  We must not depend on public opinion polls to boost our morale.  Only numbers on election day can do that.

September 30, 2009