To me, the most interesting finding in the Pew Center’s new study on independent voters–which John Avlon uses to plug his move-left-on-social-issues strategy for the GOP–concerns regulation. We have been told that the financial crisis would lead the public to embrace a larger regulatory role for the government and discredit advocates of the free market. (Harold Meyerson sounds this theme in pretty much his every column in the Washington Post.) Pew doesn’t find the massive swing the public discussion might lead one to expect. Asked whether “government regulation of business usually does more harm than good,” majorities continue to agree. There has been only a three-point decline in agreement since 2007 (from 57 to 54 percent).

Republicans have become much more anti-regulation and Democrats much more pro-regulation; independents have seen a 4-point shift toward regulation that still leaves them skeptical. (They went from 59 to 55 percent agreement.)

As for Avlon’s interpretation of the data, I think the questions Pew asks on social issues have limited salience. The fact that most people don’t think that school boards should fire teachers for being gay, for example, just doesn’t say all that much about GOP strategy.