Objective This study revisits the idea that the American public is moderate or nonideological. In this longstanding view, only informed elites maintain consistent ideologies that constrain their political attitudes and behaviors; the mass public is driven instead by partisan identities that they are socialized into. The study explores whether the public's liberal‐to‐conservative self‐placement is temporally stable, and whether it is predictive of political attitudes when pit against partisanship. Methods The study examines data from the 2010 American National Election Survey and the 2008–2012 General Social Survey longitudinal panel. Results The American public today maintains coherent and consistent ideologies that systematically divide them in their sociopolitical attitudes and policy preferences. Conclusion While partisanship is a powerful top‐down driver of the American public's attitudes and policy preferences toward overtly partisan issues and behaviors like Obamacare and voting, on broader sociopolitical issues like abortion, ideology is a powerful bottom‐up driver of attitudes.