I've gotten tired of trying to interpret the results of these "Scientific Polls" that are used to try to gauge the feelings of the people of the U.S. through multiple-choice or "On a scale of 1-10" questions. How do we really know what is important to people this way?
Well, as I'm sure you have heard from at least one of your teachers in your lifetime: "Life is an essay test." Today I'm going to start a little thing I'm humbly (or not) calling The Edly Poll. My intent is to ask fairly open questions and find out what readers are actually thinking by getting them to respond through posts, not multiple-choice questions. Perhaps then we can get a better idea of what people are actually thinking, instead of the imprecise guesses we are having to make now.
For the first Edly Poll, I want to know what policies that a political party could push are important to you?
Click through to add your response to The Edly Poll.
Folks-
Like a lot of people, over the last couple of years I’ve been paying a lot of attention to political polls and trying to make sense of what they say. I’m sure that at some time you’ve heard the old saw: "Life is an essay test," (or something similar) probably from one of your school teachers who had just handed you one. Well, the problem with a lot of political polls is that they are multiple-choice quizzes instead of essay. A poll posed as an essay would give you a better idea of what people are thinking (admittedly it would be much harder to graph.)
Personally, I’ve gotten tired of reading how I supposedly feel based on multiple-choice polls that don’t necessarily ask the right questions, or allow you to choose the answer that really represents the thoughts of those polled, and considering the interactive nature of the internet, especially blogs like this one, I’m going to ask all of you a series of essay questions over a period of time (probably the next few weeks) to see what people really do think, at least about certain subjects such as run-on sentences. Please take the time to answer these questions by posting your thoughts below.
In case you were wondering, I don’t work as a pollster, and this poll is just to satisfy my own curiosity. I’ll be cross-posting this to several other sites covering as many sides of the political spectrum as I can. After a few days, I’ll collect the most interesting responses and compile them into a single document that I will post here so you can see them.
Here’s the first of The Edly Poll's questions:
This question is for all legal U.S. residents regardless of gender, age, or political affiliation. Assume that political parties do not exist yet, but some are starting to form. What policies would have to be part of a party’s platform in order for you to consider joining or contributing to that party? Be as specific as possible. Try to keep your answers about what policies you want included, not those you want excluded, and try to keep away from phrases that can be interpreted in different ways, such as "Family Values," "Environmental Activism," or "Immigration Reform" unless you then explain what you mean by them. Please include why you think it is important. There are no wrong answers, so feel free to write your honest opinion. If responding to another person’s post, please do not disparage their opinion. Be constructive!