Trego's Mountain Ear

Echelon Insights ( Voter Cluster Analysis – Echelon Insights ) is a polling outfit that has learned that polling just doesn’t work right when you only look at the traditional right/left or conservative/liberal differences.  When you click the link, you’ll see that it takes you to a 29 screen pamphlet that describes the eight political tribes they find necessary to identify to conduct reliable polls.

The second page offers this insight:  the electorate is evenly split between pro and anti establishment – with conservatives being the most strongly anti-establishment. 

Page 10 identifies the eight political tribes:

MAGA Conservatives – 14% of the electorate – staunch conservatives who  are also anti-establishment.

Reagan Conservatives – 10% of the electorate – “social and economic conservatives who trust institutions”

Right-Leaning Populists – 14% – “disaffected culturally conservative voters who think the economy is rigged in favor of the wealthy, are pro gun, and see a role for government in the economy”

Big Government Populists – 12% – “Supports strong government actions on all fronts”

Apolitical Moderates – 10% -”Relatively disengaged, express more uncertainty across issues”

Disillusioned and Diverse –  12% -”A younger left-leaning group that expresses strong skepticism toward institutions”

Liberal Patriots – 14% – “Older liberals who believe America is the best country in the world, don’t believe America is racist, oppose defunding the police, and support an active foreign policy”

Staunch Progressives – 13% – “The most consistently left-leaning on social and economic issues, critical on what they perceive to be the failures of American democracy and society”

Page 11 states “MAGA + Populists far outnumber Reagan Conservatives among Republicans, Democrats evenly split between Staunch Progressives and Liberal Patriots.”

Some of the demographic information is interesting – for example the Big Government Populists score at 68% non-college, while the MAGA Conservatives score at 59% non-college. 

I can’t say that their division of American voters into 8 groups is perfect – but it looks like it can explain more than just splitting the voters into groups of Trumpkins and Libtards.