We’re guided by principle, not petty party politics

Recently a helpful reader named William, much concerned about the continued survival and profitability of the Review-Journal, sent a letter advising us to change our editorial ways or face extinction.

At least that's what I think he was implying.

"In reading your editorials I feel like I'm watching Fox News. You do realize that only 22 percent of Americans consider themselves Republican. The demographics are not on your side."

Actually, according to a recent Rasmussen Reports, the numbers are at 36.8 percent Democrat vs. 33.3 percent Republican. The rest are independent or affiliated with one of the so-called minor parties.

When you ignore actual party registration and ask everyone toward which party they lean, as Gallup did in 2008, we find Nevada leans Democrat by 11 points -- this during the Obama thrall. By comparison, on the opposite ends of the spectrum, the District of Columbia leans Democrat by 75 points and Utah leans Republican by 23 points.

But is party affiliation really a reflection of what people want to read or how they think? And should a newspaper's editorial page be nothing more than a statistical reflection of the mood of its readers? Is there no room for leadership?

Nor is everything viewed through the prism of politics. Sometimes the need for road improvements, zoning, school bonds and the like cut across the lines of political leanings. Only a small percentage of the things worth addressing in our community and in our editorials are tinged by political philosophy.

At the Review-Journal, we consider our editorial stance to be neither Republican nor Democrat. We have endorsed candidates of both parties, though more often Republicans, which is in sharp contrast to the lock-step leftist endorsements of the Las Vegas Sun.

We tend to view our position as lower-case libertarian, not the party but the philosophy, which we see as fiscally conservative, while somewhat liberal, if you will, when it comes to social mores. While we might not condone certain behavior -- drug use, riding a motorcycle without a helmet -- we think it is not our place to dictate to others, by law, how to act. Advising is another matter entirely.

Though we do not base our philosophical stance on counting heads -- which is tantamount to seeing which way the mob is headed and then jumping in front and shouting "follow me" -- the number of heads might actually be more in our favor than concerned reader William thinks.

In another Gallup survey, this one reported in June, it was found that the number of Americans identifying themselves as conservative has ticked up a bit, and self-identified conservatives now outnumber self-identified liberals 2-to-1.

Over the past decade or so, the trend line plotted by Gallup shows those who see themselves as conservative or moderate has held steady in the upper 30s to lower 40s percentage range, while liberalism is embraced by somewhere between 17 and 22 percent at any given time.

The most recent results show conservatives account for 40 percent of Americans, up from 37 percent the prior year. Moderates dropped to 35 percent from 37. Liberals slipped a point from 22 to 21 percent.

Those in the conservative camp who considered themselves very conservative accounted for 9 percent of all surveyed, compared with 5 percent who considered themselves very liberal. There was no very moderate, of course, and 4 percent were clueless and expressed no opinion.

Political party affiliation is a relative thing anyway. I remained a registered Democrat for years simply out of the habit from my formative years in Texas and Louisiana of finding that, if I failed to vote in the Democratic primary, I did not get a real choice. The Republicans were merely afterthoughts, and too often, at that time, merely segregationists.

It was rather telling of actual political leanings when the governor of Louisiana, since indicted and convicted Edwin Edwards, hatched a plot to eliminate the Republican Party in that state forever by changing to an open primary.

The first governor elected under the open primary system -- which of the nine candidates included two Bubbas, a Buddy and a Sonny -- was Republican Dave Treen.

So, I think we'll stick to our philosophy and try to persuade more readers of the benefits thereof.

Thomas Mitchell is editor of the Review-Journal and writes about the role of the press and access to public information. He may be contacted at 383-0261 or via e-mail at tmitchell@reviewjournal.com. Read his blog at lvrj.com/blogs/mitchell.