Republicans: White, conservative base

by Mark Silva

We've heard a lot about the so-called "voices of the Republican Party'' lately - radio's Rush Limbaugh, former Vice President Dick Cheney perhaps. Colin Powell begs to differ, suggesting that the Republican Party he loves has a lot more room for moderation than those voices offer.

The face of the Republican Party, however, looks a lot more like its most voluble voices and less like that of Mr. Moderation, according to a Gallup Poll breakdown of the ethnicity and political views of those who identify themselves as Republicans, Democrats and independents.

More than 6 in 10 self-styled Republicans are non-Hispanic white conservatives. Another one quarter are white but not conservative. Just 5 percent are Hispanic, 2 percent black and 4 percent of other races, according to Gallup's polling.

The majority of Democrats also are non-Hispanic and white - 53 percent - but they are not conservative. Only 12 percent are white conservatives. Nearly one in five Democrats are black, 11 percent Hispanic and 6 percent of other races.

The greatest number of Hispanics, interestingly, is found among self-styled independents: 14 percent - another indication of the potential swing vote that lies within the fastest growing minority of the American population. Blacks account for 6 percent of independents, but the greatest percentage of independents -- 48 percent - are non-Hispanic and white.

The numbers "reinforce the basic challenge facing the Republican Party today as it ponders how best to remedy a situation that finds Democrats in control of the White House and both houses of Congress,'' writes Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll.

"Republicans have a clear monopoly on the allegiance of white conservative Americans, but the GOP's challenge is figuring out whether this is enough of a base on which to build for the future,'' he notes. "The alternative is for the GOP to broaden its base to include more minorities and/or more whites who are moderate or liberal in their ideological outlook -- groups now predominantly loyal to the Democratic Party.''

"The results show clearly that the Republican Party today is first and foremost a political entity dominated by white Americans.... By well over a 2-to-1 ratio, whites who identify as Republicans claim a conservative, rather than a moderate or liberal....
"Democrats have a significantly more diverse party composition,' Newport notes. "Well over a third (36%) of Democrats are nonwhite (Hispanic, or black or some other race) and the 64% of Democrats who are white are strongly skewed -- by more than a 4-to-1 ratio -- toward an ideological position that is moderate or liberal rather than conservative.
"Independents, as would be expected, are somewhere between Republicans and Democrats in terms of their racial, ethnic, and ideological composition. Twenty-seven percent of independents are Hispanic, or are black or identify with another race, and, by about a 2-to-1 ratio, white independents split toward the non-conservative ideological position.''
These figures are based on more than 26,314 interviews that Gallup conducted in May, with the results carrying a possible margin of error of plus or minus one percentage point.