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In some respects, political affiliation—a person’s political beliefs and positions—is the most difficult of the demographic characteristics to pin down. Traditional labels like “liberal” or “conservative” and “Republican” or “Democrat” elude specific meaning and are so broad as to be relatively useless in predicting a person’s views on every issue. “Conservative,” for example, may refer to fiscal conservatism (belief in balanced budgets and reduced taxes), law-and-order conservatism (belief in the need for a stronger criminal justice system), defense conservatism (belief in the necessity for a strong defense and military preparedness), or social conservatism (positions on controversial social issues, like abortion or the right to die, often informed by religious perspectives). Members of your audience who identify themselves as conservative won’t all necessarily hold the same beliefs about each of these dimensions of conservatism. Likewise, membership in a political party does not guarantee that someone will vote for a specific candidate or respond to a speaker’s message in a predictable manner.

Nevertheless, knowing your listeners’ political orientation—as well as their views on specific political issues—can help you determine how to craft your speech. In a highly polarized political climate, attention to your listeners’ political orientation becomes especially crucial to making a successful presentation.