ZOGBY POLL and the "pre-9/11 mentality" meme.
Tue Jan 31, 2006 at 08:50:46 AM PDT
I just participated in the latest Zogby Survey - one of their longer ones. I was fascinated by a couple of questions. The first was,
"How do you feel about having George W. Bush as your President?" The options were:
Proud.
Ashamed.
Not sure.
I'm kind of shocked that this question was asked so directly and I'd like to see what the response was, but I haven't been able to find it yet. Perhaps the result was so profoundly one-sided that they'd prefer not to publish it?
Another question about the future costs of certain items asked which concerned me most. The list contained the usual - housing, energy/heating fuel, food, clothing and applicances (?), other bills including credit cards. Notably absent as a choice was "cost of health care." I sent an email calling them on it.
I also sent an email about a series of questions (buried among the usual ones asking about terrorism, pre-emptive nuking of Iran, etc.) that I found stunningly partisan. "Do you believe that the federal government has adopted:
a pre-9/11 mentality
a post-9/11 mentality
neither
not sure
The question was repeated, substituting for "the federal government", Republicans, Democrats and "most Americans."
Here are the Zogby results and interpretation as posted on their website:
Survey Finds Troubling News for Bush Critics as Well
Despite the negative news for President Bush in the survey, Democrats come in for criticism as well. When asked whether the federal government, the American people, and the two major parties had adopted a post-9/11 mentality or were living in a pre-9/11 world, respondents were only more likely to suggest the Democrats had not absorbed the lessons of 9/11, with 44% saying the party was still living in a pre-9/11 world - higher than the 27% who said the Democrats had adopted a post-9/11 mentality. This also places them well behind the Republican Party and the federal government, which 66% and 61%, respectively, said had adopted a post-9/11 mindset. Meanwhile, 38% said the American people had adopted a post-9/11 mindset, while 30% said they still have a pre-9/11 outlook.
Here's my emailed comment:
Perhaps because you never defined what "a post-9/11 mentality" and "a pre-9/11 mentality" are, I interpreted both as negatives. To me, a "post-9/11 mentality" is exemplified by those who are extremely fearful and inclined to believe that only drastic and often immoral, destructive and strategically unsound actions will "save us." Conversely, a "pre-9/11 mentality" to me is one that refuses to acknowledge that there are problems, and even threats, that must be dealt with realistically, rationally and creatively. Thus, I believe that the federal government, under control of the Republicans, has definitely adopted a "post-9/11 mentality" whereas a majority of Americans and a majority of Democrats have adopted neither a pre- or post-9/11 mentality. I believe that most Americans are actually more realistic and much less fearful than either artificially imposed position implies.
Of course, this terminology itself was "invented" by Republicans and the Bush Administration as another way of forcing people into the same false choice - "You're either with us or you're against us." Their intended implication is, of course, that a "post-9/11 mentality" is "realistic" while a "pre-9/11 mentality" is "pollyanna-ish." Simply by employing this terminology in your survey questions, you are enabling and propagating a Republican attempt to define the terms of the question.
By the way, I truly consider myself to be independent politically (please note the lowercase "i") and a moderate - or what once would have been considered a "moderate." As Republicans and the Bush Administration continue to successfully define the terms of issues, I find that my political, social and economic positions, though they haven't changed very much, have come to be more-or-less "officially" classified as "Liberal/Progressive" or even "Leftist" with an extremely perjorative connotation. I find this very disturbing, and certainly no less so when your survey questions appear to further this trend.
This situation reminds me of the aprocryphal tale of an American in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war. The fellow was grabbed off the street by masked gunmen who demanded to know if he was a Christian or a Muslim. "I'm a Tourist!" he cried. And they let him go.
The point here is not that I'm surprised that Zogby isn't balanced, but that it's become even more clear to me that we need, ASAP, to kill this "9/11 mentality" meme, which will surely be used by Rove and Co. during the 2006 mid-terms to define the debate, by answering that we have adopted neither of their artifically limited alternatives and by defining a succinct and memorable alternative.
Suggestions?
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