We are the majority – let’s start acting like it.

A new Gallop poll reinforces what we at Minnesota Majority have always known. The American people are center-right philosophically. The poll found that the largest self-identified political group are conservatives at 40%. By contrast, just 21% identify themselves as liberals. 35% said they think of themselves as moderates.

The center-right demographic could be more aptly termed “right-center” based on the breakdown in the Gallop poll’s findings. Politically right and center people account for 75% of the population, with 9% saying they are “very conservative” compared to just 5% who say they are “very liberal.”

With the overwhelming majority of Americans in the center-right category, one has to ask how our nation’s policies have drifted so far to the left. The answer is somewhat complicated, but the key is cohesion. The Republican Party has long been considered the home of modern conservatism, but scores of Republicans who’ve been elected have strayed far from their party’s conservative platform. The conservative movement has become fractured for numerous reasons including divisive internal party politics, infighting and boutique issue organizations.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Conservatives had built an incredibly strong national coalition that set aside differences to strive for common goals. That coalition was largely taken for granted, hasn’t been nurtured and worse, factions have been deliberately turned against one another in the interest of short-term power plays. The result is a nation ruled by a small minority, because conservatives have forgotten the importance of working together.

In Minnesota, we’ve seen the power of building coalitions and working together. The Minnesota Budget Solutions Coalition (sometimes informally called the “Budget Hawks”) consisted of 9 non-profit conservative organizations that occasionally consulted with legislators like Representative Steve Drazkowski, who had the initial coalition-building vision and started the different groups meeting together. The coalition’s goal was to solve the state’s $6.4 billion budget shortfall without raising taxes. Now at the end of session, we can clearly say “mission accomplished.”

The “misery tour” of sham legislative budget “listening sessions designed to conjure up justification for tax hikes was deflated by activists rallied and informed by the coalition member organizations.

The Budget Solution Document produced by the group was distributed to tens of thousands of Minnesotans, and to every state legislator and the governor. Some of the ideas offered found their way into bills and became law. The governor’s office is now engaged in unallotment planning. We expect that more of the coalitions ideas will be implemented in that process.

That is the power of working together instead of bunkering down in our separate factionalized camps. We are the majority. Let’s start acting like it by working together and reasserting our influence in the process. If we all pull together, we can move mountains. Let’s start by determining which mountain we can all agree on and start pulling.

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