There are move conservatives than liberals in this county. In 2011, a Gallup poll found that the largest group of Americans identify as conservative, at 40 percent. Another 35 percent identify as moderate, while only 21 percent identify as liberal.

I found this week’s inaugural address by President Obama to equal parts stirring, historic, and hopeful. Many, however, found it to be an extremely “liberal” address.

Fox News called it “divisive politics.”

CNN’s David Gergen said that it deepened divisions.

Mitch McConnell said, “I think the president’s inaugural address was disappointing in the sense that it was basically a liberal agenda, directed at an America that we still believe is center-right.”

Sen. John Thune said. “We were reminded yesterday that this is a liberal president with a liberal agenda.”

Rush Limbaugh said it was “unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

Lefty, lefty, lefty. Socialist. Radical. Liberal!

Really? Was it? People have been polling on the issues Obama addressed, and you might be surprised at the answers.

Climate Change

We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.  — Obama inaugural address

Two polls taken after the presidential eleciont found that 78 percent of respondents said they believed the planet had warmed over the past 100 years, and 49 percent said they thought global warming would be a “very serious” problem for the United States if left unaddressed (31 percent said they thought it would be “somewhat serious”). Fifty-seven percent of the 1,002 adults surveyed said the United States government should do “a great deal” or “quite a bit” on global warming.

Same-sex Marriage

Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. – Obama inaugural address

The percentage of those who favor same-sex marriage has been rising steadily for some time. Five polls on same-sex marriage have been conducted since the election. In them, an average of 51 percent of respondents favored same-sex marriage, while 44 percent opposed it.

Immigration

Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity, until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. — Obama inaugural address

A Fox News poll conducted Jan. 15 to 17 found that two in three registered voters favored allowing “illegal immigrants to remain in the country and eventually qualify for U.S. citizenship, but only if they meet certain requirements like paying back taxes, learning English, and passing a background check.”

A CBS News poll from mid-December found that 47 percent favored allowing illegal immigrants who are currently working in the United States to “eventually apply for U.S. citizenship,” while only 27 percent favored requiring illegal immigrants to leave the United States.

Gun Control

Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm. — Obama inaugural address

A New York Times/CBS News poll found that 54 percent of respondents favored tighter gun laws, up from 39 percent in a CBS News poll last April.

A Jan. 17 Gallup poll found 53 percent of adults said they would want their representative to vote for the package of gun law reforms that Mr. Obama proposed. Forty-one percent said they would want their representative to oppose the laws.

In the same Fox News poll, laws requiring criminal background checks and mental health checks on all gun buyers were both favored by more than 80 percent of respondents. The Times/CBS News poll found that 92 percent of respondents favored background checks on all potential gun buyers — right now, 40 percent of gun sales (those through gun shows) are not subject to background checks.

But perhaps most telling was a Washington Post-ABC poll that found that nearly 9 in 10 Republicans support requiring background checks at gun shows, 65 percent of Republicans support adding armed guards in schools, and 59 percent of Republicans support a ban on high-capacity clips. Only 45 percent of Republicans support the banning of assault weapons, but only 51 percent oppose it, which is only half. These are essentially Obama’s proposals on gun control.

Of course, if you ask those same people about Obama’s gun control suggestions (by using his name) 72 percent oppose them. Hmmmm.

Meanwhile, Republicans are winning hearts and minds by saying things like this… on Martin Luther King Day:

“I think Martin Luther King, Jr., would agree with me if he were alive today that if African Americans had been given the right to keep and bear arms from day one of the country’s founding, perhaps slavery might not have been a chapter in our history,”

What was it that killed MLK, anyway? I forget.

Look, I get it. You don’t like Obama because he is socialist or he’s black or he has an African name or he’s “not like us.” But the polls don’t lie. In a country where only 21 percent of the people identify themselves as “liberal,” most of this country supports his ideas and policies. If that’s the case, then his ideas are no longer liberal; they are mainstream. They are what most of us, even some Republicans, want and believe, especially if you don’t put his name on it.

That’s not divisive. That’s a coalescing of opinion.

Yesterday, John Boehner said that “Obama is intent on destroying the Republican Party.” Truth is, Obama doesn’t have to lift a finger. They are doing a fine job of destroying the party all by themselves.

Indeed, the only division is in the Republican party itself. It’s probably high time for them to let go of their blind hatred of the “O”-word. It’s not doing them any favors. Because Obama will be gone in a few years, but these issues will remain, and both parties have already staked their territories.