America-- More Liberal than you'd think

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 12:10pm

America is certainly a divided nation, but isn't as conservative as our government in Washington would have you believe. This is a lot of data to digest, but it's worth giving this recent poll even a quick glance. A few of the interesting results:

55% of people want to keep abortion legal. 56% want stem cell research. 65% want universal health care for all Americans, even if it means higher taxes. A whopping 86% want to increase the minimum wage. And no matter how you slice it, Americans want to pay down the debt and think taxes are too low.

See for yourself:


Beyond Red & Blue

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 12:49pm

Mandate my ass!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 12:57pm

Overall, not very surprising - but those figures under 'gay marriage' are pretty disheartening. I can't express how much I'd like a revisitation of the 'no taxation without representation' ideology. They're certainly enjoying a fair amount of our money while they continue to deny us equal rights.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 1:39pm

everything under the sun has a way to skew numbers to support what they want. generally this country is much more conservative than european countries.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 1:48pm

I think that this country isn't as conservative as the voting portion of this country by any means. But, voting is what counts. As we saw.

I think we are evolving on gays--but slowly. We WILL get there. It's inevitable.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 2:38pm

Darcy I just meant that most of America doesn't endorse Bush's right-wing policies. I didn't mean to compare us to other nations-- just that there is no mandate for Bush's policies, as Pal Joey put it so eloquently!

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 2:47pm

DGrant, "They're certainly enjoying a fair amount of our money while they continue to deny us equal rights."

Damn right. I just read an article that said the LGBT community will have over 615 billion ( Yes, BILLION)in spending money this year. I thought, "That's odd. You don't like our 'lifestyle' but you will find out how much we make and where we spend our money."

Now, why don't we do something with that clout?

[whiskedaway]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 2:52pm

shocking information

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 2:55pm

Most of us don't have kids, so therefore, extra spending money.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 3:10pm

Don't yell at me PJ for hammering home my same rant ... but I always come back to the fact that 70+ million registered voters didn't vote in the last election. That says as much about who we are as polls that measure the liberal/conservative graph. How did those people sit home that day? How did they ascertain that the critical issues weren't worth weighing in on? Did many of those same people get all gooey inside and teary when they saw the blue fingers held high of the Iraqis on their voting day? Do they care about the incarceration of journalists? What sort of democracy shows its indifference to our hard-won freedoms?

Watching "1776" on the a.m. of the 4th, always stirring, I thought again of those legions of non-voters. If there's one thing that sickens me, it's the 'whatever' apathy of people everywhere, proud to be an American when it involves barbecues, beer, and fireworks, but too lazy to stand up and be counted.

Updated On: 7/8/05 at 03:10 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 3:15pm

Who's yellin'?

[ChiChi]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 3:19pm

In regard to Universal Health Care resulting in higher taxes, let's remember HOW MUCH we pay for benefits on our own, even if we share the cost with our employers. I would gladly pay higher taxes if it meant that EVERYONE had Health Care. So many people do not and I think it is sad.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 3:30pm

now auggie, over 56% of the voting age public voted for president in 2004, 115.7 million people give or take a few dead bodies in chicago. that's the highest participation since '68. higher than what turned out for nixon's '72 landslide (he was after all the greatest evil prior to gw, right?).

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763629.html

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0922901.html

based on these numbers, particpation is increasing after falling (in general) for the last several presidential elections. rather than bemoan the apathy off the people, i think you ought to cheer that they seem to be getting involved again after several cycles of non-participation. although, they do seem to keep electing republicans, so perhaps your side might be better served by apathy.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 3:32pm

"My first thought when I heard - just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack [i.e., yesterday's terrorist attack in London] and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, 'Hmmm, time to buy.'"

--BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS

[Auggie27]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 3:47pm

Papa, I read your numbers. We can argue til we're red or blue faced. But still, as reported at your cited site:

"Voting age population (Census Bureau Population Survey for Nov. 2000): 205,815,000

Estimated number of voters in 2004 election was 115.7 million (Associated Press)."

Even more folks didn't vote than I reported. almost 80 million. Still not exactly a triumph, when you consider the growing populace. It's 80 million who didn't vote, 62 million who voted for Bush, and 59 who voted for Kerry. (More people were indifferent than voted for either man. Mandate, shmandate).

And honestly, my less partisan musings aren't about who fired up whose base. I still step back and wonder about the mindsets of those 80 million, what kept them home, after being told that "after 9/11, it's a different world." Apparently, not different enough

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 3:50pm

I'm sure a lot of them were feeling let down by the previous elections and how those turned out. I talked to a few people who were saying, "It doesn't really matter because Bush is going to win anyway."

It was pretty sad that they couldn't be bothered to TRY and change things.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 3:51pm

Look at how many people say things like "The two parties are both the same" or "Bush & Kerry-- it's 6 of one, half dozen of the other."

I always jump on statements like that-- usually to the effect of "Well if you are stupid enough to think that, I guess we're lucky you don't vote."

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 3:53pm

I loved Margos story about dumping her beautiful boyfriend because he was dumb as a box of hair, saying he voted for Regean twice "because we have the same birthday".

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/8/05 at 3:58pm

national average percentage of turnout v. possible voters since 1930 is 55%, auggie. cut that down to since '68 and it's 53%. 2004's turnout was above average and bodes well for improved future participation as more and more grass roots groups fight to get more of the population involved. i'll even go out on a limb and bet that '08 goes over 60%. i'm sorry that more people don't vote, but 70 years of history shows that we had above average turnout.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 10:43pm

"My first thought when I heard - just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack [i.e., yesterday's terrorist attack in London] and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, 'Hmmm, time to buy.'"

--BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS

this was a response to the following query (badly phrased as it is) from sheppard smith (or however you spell bad newsreader with good hair):

"some of the things you might expect to happen, for instance a drop in the stock market and some degree of uncertainty across this country, none of that really seen today and i wonder if really the timing of it, that it happened in the middle of the night, and we were able to get a sense of the grander scheme of things, wasn't helpful in all this."

the quote also omits the first phrase of brit's, "well maybe. the other thing of course is, um, people have, you know, the market was down, it was down yesterday, and um, you nev-, you know you may have had some bargain hunting going on."

now maybe it's just me, but at a time when markets might be going down due to an outside event, it seems to me that what would help the economy most is people buying so as to turn around any kind of downturn. i know it's tragic for those who would like to point to the stocks and say, "see, look what terrorism does." but if more people had brit's attitude, one effect of the terrorists' weapons would be muted.

do ya really think they'd keep attacking if they dow went up everytime they did??

[Pinguin]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 11:05pm

There are still some pretty conservative numbers in there; only 22 percent were against displaying the 10 commandments in govt. buildings, 61 percent oppose gay marriage, and 57 percent think we should add creationism along with evolution in public schools. Those are some darn conservative numbers. I'm actually surprised about that, especially the creationism question...weird.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 11:41pm

Argh don't get me started on creationism-- The R's have got that issue running ragged. They have the strategy where if they just keep saying something over and over, people get tired of objecting and eventually people think it's true. They keep up with "Evolution is only A THEORY" and now the average man on the street actually thinks there is some doubt about it.

It suck to have to keep saying "Yeah evolution is a THEORY-- like gravity is a theory and you need air to breathe is a theory! It's a theory that virtually every scientist agrees is true."

Why don't they get all worked up when science teachers say that the sun is the center of the universe?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 11:53pm

Does anyone know the REAL story about Brit Hume's gay son? The one who was having an affair with Susan Molinari's husband?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 12:40am

Brit Hume has a gay son? Man if there was a God, he'd have a WICKED sense of humor!

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 11:18am

when faced with facts, respond with innuendo. there's a strategy no one could have ppossibly anticipated.