This seemed to be a natural follow-up from last week's "what is your occupation/work/Job" question:
- What do is your level of/type of political activity?
- What do you really DO polticially?
- Update/Clarify: This is not just party political activity; it also includes issue activism; see category definitions below.
After all, this is a political site. It seems like a reasonable question...
(And, as always, this poll will work best if it were to be up in the Recommended Diaries" secion for the whole day, allowing all regions of the country a chance to see it both in the morning and evening.)
Consider these categories in descending order, so check the first one that applies, even if some below it also apply.
#1: Elected office at any level counts. If you hold an appointed position that does not count for #1 though it may count for #2 or #3 if partisan affiliation is required. If you ran for office and lost that does not count. If you used to hold office but not currenlty, that does not count. It is okay if the office is officially or really non-partisan or you otherwise are not officially considered as a Democratic or other Party office holder per se; many positions are elected not on party-lines; those still count so long as you had to run for the office and were elected by voters.
#2 and #3: Political activity may include working for a specific candidate, a specific political party, a loca political club, consultant work for politics, working for a polticial issue advocacy group even if it is not strictly speaking "partisan" (e.g,. Anti-War, Abortion Rights, Civil Rights, Single Payer Health Care).
If it is your main job, fulltime, source of 50% or more of your annual income, then vote #2.
If it is part-time, not your main work, or amounts ot less than 50% of your annual income then vote #3.
#2 and #3 does not include, by way of example, being a lawyer at a law firm that does all sorts of law, and may have among many clients some political work, unless that is what YOU do mostly (if you do mostly real estate that does not count). Similarly for advertising, and other such situation. If your firm or company or organization does some political related work, but YOU do not do this as your main activity, then do not count it as such.
#4: Volunteer work includes being active in local political party group; maybe doing canvassing for example.
If the organization is NOT partisan, and is truly not political, then please do not count it as political work (whether your relationship is paid or voluntary). This is not a matter of IRS qualification. American United for Spearation of Church & State may be non-partisan, but it is Political, and if you work for an organization like that, it does count. But if the organization is more social, cultural, community, non-political social service, etc. then it is not POLITICS. So if it is the United Way or Red Cross, that is not political. some organizations may be harder to classify. For example, "Dykes on Bikes" might be political if the group is actively working for Lesbian rights; or it might not be if they are purely a bikers club. Please, just use your judgement.
#5: If you write diaries here at dKos and/or have your own blog, but that is all you do then vote #5. I don't mean to demean "just" blogging by making it below items 1-4, just that I assume that most people here are involved in diarying or otherwise blogging. Only use #4, if you are getting out there in the real world, face-to-face with other people doing organized active political work.
But also: don't use #5 Just writing comments, but never wrote a diary does NOT count. Just Recommending, but never wrote diary, does not count. Just lurking does not count.
6 through 10: I hope these are self explanatory.
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Last Week's Poll Results - What is Your Occupation/Work/Job:
Where "dKos demographic poll over two days responders" (whatever that means; lol) are more or less frequent then U.S. in general is self-evident.
How did the two-part voting over two-days work?
- 556 said their occupation was in next day's poll & would vote next day; and in fact more than that, 980, voted in 2nd day; I think this is good.
- 438 bothered to confirm they had voted prior day, when 4080 had; this may or may not be a problem.
- I dunno; what do you think? See also the "Usual Caveats" below.
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We have now polled on:
Minor Polls:
So what should I poll on in the future?
- Something new... please specify... give me suggestions?
- Redo one of the ones above (boy did you blow it the first time, and here is how you should redo it).
- Stop!!!
- Other?
Update: Most likely so far for next week "Do you have Children?"
After posting this poll this morning... on my way to work, thinking over the list of polls done and what was left out, I had that forehead smacking ("gosh coulda had a V8") moment... and it has come up in the comment suggestions below too. How does this sound?
(update: per comments... fixed childless categories; thanks.)
- No children yet; I do want to have children in future, but none yet (too young; and/or don't have partner).
- No children, and not going to have to have any, and don't want any (childless by choice).
- No children & not likely to have any, but wanted to have (childless not by choice)
- Have 1 child and they are under 18.
- Have 2 childnre at least one under 18.
- Have 3 children at least one under 18.
- have 4 or more children, at least one still under 18.
- have 1 child, over 18 know.
- have 2 children, both over 18
- have 3 children, all over 18
- have 4 or more children, all over 18
I am using the split around having children up to age 18 to represent both "school-age" children (through high school) and live at home/dependent/minors. Since if your children are all "grown" up, the political and social and economic meaning is different.
How does this sound?
Suggestions for changes...? Okay...? Do it different...?
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The usual caveats:
Of course these polls are not "scientific." Since the poll is inherently self selecting and is not a random sample there is always the presumption of selection bias, making the survey results different than truth. These will never be valid random sample. And just size alone does not make it valid since still self selecting and has inherent selection bias. But probably has some validity... though since not a random sample, and don't know enough about total population, sample frame and self selecting factors, cannot even measure how inaccurate it is... Yet probably has some validity... yet not valid and can't even measure how invalid... yet....
Granting all that, there are some indicators suggestive of possible validity in these polls: for example if distriubtion is relatively stable and does not jump around wildly this is not definititive but suggestive (at least that it is not being "freeped". Also, when poll done repeatedly, either same way, or only slightly different way (some advantage to doing slightly differently, if thought out, as test of validity), at different times, lets say different day of week, weekday and weekend, morning vs. night, months or years apart.
Some folks asked why should we do these demographic polls at all, and raised the issue of privacy concerns. As to the why question, the simple answer is "know thyself." Who are we when we spout off and comment? Also, it can be fun. It also helps the discussion of whatever the topic is. And yes, maybe it will be reported by other media or be used to market advertising to the site.
As to the privacy concerns, Kos has certainly made clear his strong views against "outing" the real identities of anybody. I do not know what access the site administrators have to the data or linkages of usernames to poll responses. Myself, I am just a regular user, and have nothing to do with administration or behind the scenes here. I am not doing anything with these polls (though I imagine somebody somewhere might be using them for a political science or sociology thesis). I don't know who has voted or what age goes with whom. I have no special access or use. All I have is the same bar graph and diary that is publicly visible. Also, there are no cross-tabs between any variables (e.g., prior urban-rural with region with religion). It is not like a questionnaire with multiple separate questions per single interviewee. I guess the question is a matter of what the site administrators COULD access and link or identify if they were so inclined, whether they WOULD do so; and what protections are there on system to prevent an outsider from doing so? Clearly if there were a serious break of confidentiality/privacy, the Kos community would react very badly. The simple answer is, if you are that concerned, with this or any other issue, then do not participate; don't vote. This is a voluntary poll, within one of many diaries on DKos, with DKos just among the nearly infinite number of webpages you can browse.
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Note: this one came off Recommended list before 5pm Eastern time)
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