POLLING DATA

There are many new polls showing the mood and feelings of the nation coming out every day. So many that it is not always easy to keep updated. Below are a few interesting polls that show ongoing trends within the way the populace thinks. It never ceases to amaze us how our elected “representatives” (including Democrats) just don’t seem to get it.

Jobs vs. The Deficit

 

Poll after poll shows basically the same thing — the majority of Americans believe that job creation is more important than tackling the deficit problem. It’s little wonder that the Democrats blew their majority in Congress with their seeming disregard to act on behalf of the majority in this and many other cases.

 

CBS News Poll. March 18-21, 2011.

“What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?” Open-ended

Economy/Jobs 51%
Budget deficit/National debt 7%
Health care 5%
Education 3%
War/Iraq/Afghanistan 3%
Other 27%
Unsure 4%

 

CBS News/New York Times Poll. Jan. 15-19, 2011

“Which of the following do you think is the most important thing for Congress to concentrate on right now: job creation, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the federal budget deficit, illegal immigration, health care, or something else?”

Job creation 43%
Health care 18%
Federal budget deficit 14%
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan 12%
Illegal immigration 7%
Something else 3%
Unsure 3%

Social Security vs. The Deficit

 

I’ll stick to a quote from the Richard (RJ) Eskow article The New Silent Majority.

“When asked how we should cut the deficit, the public would rather raise taxes on the wealthy than cut Social Security — by more than two to one.

“That includes 71% of independents, 77% of Republicans — and 76% of Tea Party supporters. That's the populist face of the New Silent Majority.”

 

This is consistent with the February 2011 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair polling result that showed 67% of the public thought that the wealthy should pay the bill. This poll was graduated by income, and it wasn’t until you got over $100,000 per year that the number of people feeling this way dropped to 47%.

The fact that Independents, Republicans and Tea Party supporters agree so strongly on this point should indicate to us that we need to take our own messaging into the precincts and neighborhoods. This is especially true when we consider how the 24–hour news cycle of the corporate media has a way of distorting polling results from people’s real concerns.

Health Care

 

Again, it should be little wonder that the Democrats lost their majority in Congress during the 2010 mid’terms. A February 1, 2009 poll (as reported in HealthCareNow.org) showed that:

The poll, which compares answers to the same questions from 30 years ago, finds that, ‘59% [of Americans] say the government should provide national health insurance, including 49% who say such insurance should cover all medical problems.’

“Only 32% think that insurance should be left to private enterprise.”

In September 2010, “A new AP poll finds that Americans who think the law should have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2–to–1.”

Free Trade

 

“A new [September 2010] NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that 69 percent of Americans believe free trade agreements with other countries have cost jobs in the United States, while just 18 percent believe they have created jobs. A 53 percent majority — up from 46 percent three years ago and 30 percent in 1999 — believes that trade agreements have hurt the nation overall.”

These numbers indicate that it’s not just rank–and–file Democrats who are opposed to free trade, but, a substantial number of Independents and Republicans as well.

Many of us within the 30th LD Democrats wonder why we keep sending the same “representative” to Congress, when in fact he appears to vote most often for trade policies that hurt American workers and the US Economy.

Summary

 

Much of the recent polling data indicates that there is not so much a division of belief in this nation as how best to move forward, so much as there is a rhetorical difference. This rhetorical differences is only accenuated by the corporate media.

Thanks to the work of people like George Lakoff, there are ways to identify, understand, and transform such rhetorical differences.

Given the corporate control of the media, and especially given the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision allowing unlimited corporate campaign contributions, there are very few options for restoring our Democracy and our Economy within the present political environment. Since the present environment isn’t working, we’ll have to create a new political environment — beginning in our precincts, neighborhoods and communities.

“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

— Margaret Mead