Few Democrats or Republicans want their party to move to the center

Americans in the latest Economist / YouGov Poll are more likely to say the Democratic Party should move to the right and that the Republican Party should move to the left than to want moves in the opposite directions — but members of those parties give different answers.

Overall, 16% of Americans say the Democratic Party should move left, 25% say it should stay where it is, and 35% say it should move right. But a lot of that is driven by the 65% of Republicans who want Democrats to move right. Among Democrats themselves, 31% want the party to move left and 45% want it to stay where it is, while only 10% want it to move right.

The inverse is true for Americans' views on the Republican Party: 32% want it to move left, 28% to stay where it is, and 15% to move right. While 59% of Democrats want the GOP to move left, only 7% of Republicans want their party to move left, while 50% of Republicans want it to stay where it is and 30% want it to move right.

Independents are more likely to say they want the Democratic Party to move right than left (31% vs. 13%) and the Republican Party to move left than right (33% vs. 12%).

Only 9% of Americans want the Democratic Party to move right and also want the Republican Party to move to the left.

Among people who are members of each party or lean toward it, those with more moderate views are most likely to say they want their party to stay where it is ideologically. Those with less moderate views in each party are more likely to want it to move away from the center.

For example, among Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents overall, 32% want the party to move to the left and 41% want it to stay where it is. But among the 29% who are very liberal, 66% want it to move left and 25% to stay where it is. That compares to the 35% who are liberal but not very liberal (27% left and 51% where it is), and the 31% who are moderate or conservative (9% and 49%).

Likewise, among Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents overall, 30% want the party to move right and 50% want it to stay where it is. But among the 25% who are very conservative, 60% want the Republican Party to move right and 34% want it to stay where it is. Among the 49% who are conservative but not very conservative, 23% want it to move right and 61% want it to stay where it is. That's similar to the 23% of Republicans and Independent-leaning Republicans who are moderate or liberal (15% and 47%).

According to this week's survey, 19% of U.S. adult citizens strongly or somewhat approve of Trump's job performance and 17% somewhat approve, for a total of 36% who strongly or somewhat approve. Another 58% strongly or somewhat disapprove, including 48% who strongly disapprove and 10% who somewhat disapprove.

Most Americans who strongly approve of Trump's job performance want the Democratic Party to move right (71%), as do a majority (54%) of those who somewhat approve. About half of each group wants the Republican Party to stay where it is.

Americans who strongly disapprove of Trump are most likely to want the Republican Party to move left (60%), and are closely divided between those who want the Democratic Party to move left (27%) and those who want it to move right (34%).

Those who somewhat disapprove of Trump's job performance differ considerably from those who strongly disapprove of Trump in their preference for the Democratic and Republican parties. 38% of the somewhat-disapprovers group say the Democratic Party should move right, while only 11% say it should move left. 35% say the Republican Party should stay where it is, compared to only 7% of strong-disapprovers. Only 18% say the Republican Party should move left.

That reflects a big difference in the composition of these two groups who disapprove of Trump. Strong-disapprovers are majority Democratic (55%); only 4% are Republican. Most of them are liberal or moderate, and they voted overwhelmingly for Kamala Harris over Trump, by 61% to 5%.

The somewhat-disapprovers, in contrast, are 20% Democrats and 29% Republicans. Three times as many say they're conservative or very conservative than very or somewhat liberal (31% vs. 10%), and more voted for Trump than Harris (29% vs. 22%, with 49% not voting).

Image: Getty (Anna Moneymaker / Staff)

What do you really think about President Trump, American politics in general, and everything else? Share your reality, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.