I like the Dailykos a lot, on many different levels. I'm sure you do too, or else you wouldn't be here...
...all of which has absolutely nothing to do with the subject/point of this diary, which is that no matter how much we may like the Dailykos, it does
not constitute (nearly) a representative population as compared to the broader U.S., world, or even
Democratic Party populations, in at least one important aspect (important, in terms of how fundamentally this aspect effects a person's worldview and/or base-of-reasoning). To begin...
...when asked in this (admittedly unscientific)
poll,
"Do you "believe" in a God(s), a "Higher Force", a Divine Plan, etc?", and given the choice to answer "Yes" or "No" - 87 Kossacks (approx. 71%) answered "No", to only 35 Kossacks (approx 28%) who answered "Yes".
Now as I say, this poll was completely unscientific, but the sample size was not itself insignificant (122 total votes). Even if the results of a more scientific/wider-sample size poll were to show a 20 point swing (highly unlikely, IMHO) then that means at least 50% of Kossacks are atheist/agnostic (a low seeming percentage based on my own time around here).
To understand what this
means, consider this U.S. Public Opinion Poll (source - Gallup via
ReligiousTolerance.org:
Belief in God
This has been thoroughly examined since 1944. 7 Results have varied little:
"Do you believe in God or a universal spirit?" |
Percentage "Yes" |
Year 1994 |
96% |
1947 |
94% |
1953-4 |
99% |
1978 |
94% |
1994 |
96% |
So that's the national "averages" apart from party affiliation - 90+% of people believe in some form of God...a figure that is likely somewhere between 40%-60% higher than you will find here at the Dailykos (!!! - stereotype, much anyone?).
However, the real punchline for a site that self-identifies as a "Democratic Party Blog" is that according the
2000 National Survey of Religion and Politics,
92% of Democrats believe in life after death! They have other findings at this link that are interesting, and unfortunately they didn't ever ask the same exact question, e.g., "Do you believe in God" - but last time I checked belief in life after death was not an atheist/agnostic thing to believe in. It would plainly appear that taken as whole the Dkos populations' "slant" on whether or not there's a "God or Universal Spirit" doesn't even come close to matching up with the mainstream pulse of the Democratic Party. (I'm sure there are many other metrics/stats to show this, but you get the point)
So in the end, everyone is free to self-congratulate, lament, shrug, or whatever - just DON'T make the mistake of deluding yourselves/ourselves that what we've got here (Dkos or the majority of the "lefty blogosphere") is anything that we can claim as representational of anything but a fairly narrow and distinct subsect of America.
Certainly I would hope that for the effectiveness of the community as a whole, that it can keep these facts/biases in mind as it endevours to reach the rest of the Nation/World/Democratic Party with its ideas.
Finally, here's another poll to give one more shot at compiling a larger sample size on this subject for everyones' own interest, this time with the exact wording of the Gallup poll in place. Have a great day.