If you’re a politician, don’t call yourself a populist. And liberal isn’t much better.

Populist is the least popular of five common political labels, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters. It’s more fashionable to be viewed as a conservative, less so to be called a progressive, the label adopted by many liberals.

Forty percent (40%) of U.S. voters view being described politically as a conservative as a positive description. That’s up eight points from last September and even up three from just after the November 2008 election. Sixteen percent (16%) say conservative is a negative description, and 43% put it somewhere in between negative and positive.

In distant second place in terms of popularity is the political description progressive. Twenty-two percent (22%) now view that as a positive description, but that’s a 10-point drop from September and down 18 points from November 2008. For 35%, progressive is a political negative, and 36% place it somewhere in between.

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Eighteen percent (18%) of voters say being called a libertarian is a positive, but 31% view it as a negative description. Nearly half (47%) of voters rate it as somewhere in between.

For 14%, being described as a political liberal is a positive, but 39% see it as a negative and 45% think it’s somewhere in between.

Only eight percent (8%) regard populist as a politically positive description. Thirty-six percent (36%) say it’s a negative description, and 49% put it somewhere in between the two.

Of course, as the old saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Fifty-five percent (55%) of liberals think the term liberal is a political positive, and a plurality (47%) of those voters like progressive, too.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of conservatives regard conservative as a politically positive description.Sixty-five percent (65%) of Republican voters rate conservative as a positive, a view shared by 39% of voters not affiliated with either party and just 17% of Democrats.

But Democratic and unaffiliated voters are more inclined to put all five descriptions in the in-between category.

The differences between the Political Class and Mainstream voters are a bit more noticeable.

Forty-three percent (43%) of the Political Class view liberal as a positive description, while 44% of Mainstream voters see it as a negative. For 46% of Mainstream Americans, conservative is a positive, but almost half (48%) of Political Class voters rank it as a negative description.

The Political Class likes populist more than conservative or libertarian as a political term, but 41% of Mainstream voters see populist as a negative description.

Mainstream voters have mixed feelings about libertarian as a political description, but 46% of the Political Class view it as a negative.

“What’s particularly interesting is that people who hold what pundits consider populist views dislike the term populist,” noted Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports. “That suggests a different terminology may be needed to describe the growing public frustration with politicians from both political parties.”

In his new book, In Search of Self-Governance, Rasmussen notes that Americans are united in the belief “that the political system is broken, that most politicians are corrupt, and that neither major political party has the answers.” In Search of Self-Governance is available from Rasmussen Reports and at Amazon.com.

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