Noam Chomsky has said repeatedly that Americans poll far to the left of both political parties. I started looking at a lot of polls to see if he was correct. The results of my search are below. I did pick the poll results that proved Mr. Chomskys point. I did not inflate any results, but I did not include results like 45% of Americans belive in creationism, and that evolution is not well substantiated in nature. Because in my opinion it reflects ignorance rather then knowledge and is not particularly important to how we run this country.
Statement of Bias: I am a progressive liberal, who believes that we will only survive in this century if we work together to create a sustainable lifestyle for all life on this planet. (Obviously this is a overstatement, I do not want the aids virus, for instance, to achieve sustainability, but you get the idea as best we can achieve it, given the difaculty of balancing the 86 billion factors that are involved - that is an exact number carefully researched by me.) I believe this is attainable and that science is with me on this.* I also think we can do it while being kind and compassionate to eachother.
So here we go:
60 to 70 percent of American adults are dissatisfied with the direction the country is headed in (1), and say they would like to see a presidential candidate that offers different policies and programs then Mr. Bush. (2) They believe leaders around the world do not respect him (3) and the United Nations (78%) should take the lead in negotiating with Iran, (4) and that his administration has done a poor job in Iraq. (5). They feel they seldom or hardly ever are told the truth by the Bush white house. (6)
The legislative branch polls slightly worse with 64% overall disapproval rating, with 65% of Americans saying our legislators are likely to make policy decisions or take actions as a direct result of campaign contributions they have received. (7)
When polled on the US's healthcare system 56% say it needs fundamental change and another 34% say it needs to be entirely rebuilt. Around 60% want the federal government to guarantee health insurance for all Americans and that they are personally very concerned about their healthcare costs. (8) They support doing medical research using embryonic stem cells, (9)
78% say that abortion should continue to be legally provided with about half of them indicating it have should have stricter limits then it does now. 82% say they have no objections to the use of birth control. (10)
85% say they are for expanding subsidized daycare for low-income families raising the minimum wage, and increasing medical care for people who cannot afford it. 75% want to spend more for low income housing , and 57% would like to guarantee everyone in the US a minimum income.
Nearly 70% indicate that corporations and upper income individuals pay to little in income tax. 78% say that completely to mostly agree that there is to much power in the hands of a few corporations. (11)
They (58-55%) Disapprove of the presidents handling of energy policy (12), with a slight majority (52%) saying they support energy conservation rather than more exploration for oil, more mining or the building of new power plants and many more than that (68%) want us to be spending more on rail, subway and bus systems, (13) an even higher percent (82-86%) would like us to increase federal funding for Solar, wind, and hydrogen technology (14), and want the government to give tax breaks to companies who are working on doing this (13), while requiring better energy efficiency for trucks and SUV (13). They feel that Congress should hold an investigation into the profits that oil companies have made in the past few months. (15) And, 78% of Americans agree with the statement: "Protecting the environment is so important that requirements and standards cannot be too high and continuing environmental improvements must be made regardless of costs". (16)
Americans believe (85%) that the worlds temperatures are rising (17), and we are seeing the effects of this now (58%) They think it will become a serious (57%) -to somewhat serious (28%) - problem for the world in the future, and the federal Government should be doing more about global warming right now. For instance requiring companies and individuals to do things to reduce global warming by law (52%) or offering tax breaks to individuals and companies to encourage them too (38%) (18).
Given all of this why is it so difficult to get politicians into office that reflect a wide percentage of American oppinions on issues? We keep hearing that our politicians are much too poll driven, but apperently they are not. What to you think?
1. Average of Poll [http://www.pollingreport.com/...]
2. Pew Research Center Oct. 6-10, 2005
3. Gallup Poll. Feb. 6-9, 20
4. Pew Research 2/5/06
5. Associated Press/Ipsos poll. April 3-5, 2006
6. CBS News/ New York Times poll
7. Fox news/Opinion Dynamics Poll 1/10-11/06
8. CBS News/New York Times Poll. Jan. 20-25, 2006
9. CBS News Poll. July 13-14, 2005
10. Public Agenda [http://www.publicagenda.org/...]
11. Public Agenda [http://www.publicagenda.org/...]
[http://www.publicagenda.org/...]
12. Newsweek Poll l. March 16-17, 2006.
13. Pew Research Center. Feb. 1-5, 2006.
14. ABC News/Washington Post Poll. Sept. 23-27, 2005
15. CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll. Oct. 28-30, 2005.
16. The Harris Poll. Aug. 9-16, 2005
17. ABC News/Time/Stanford University Poll. March 9-14, 2006
18. ABC News/Washington Post Poll. Sept. 23-27, 2005
19. Public agenda. com [http://www.publicagenda.org/...]
[http://www.pollingreport.com/...]
*[http://blog.sciam.com/...]