What's more bizarre is that as many as 16% of self-avowed Republicans could be brought to say that any criticism by a white politician of the political views of a politician "of color" is per se racist. As Glenn Reynolds says, it leads one to assume that 16% of Republican respondents simply didn't understand the question. For 16% of self-described independents and 32% of Democrats to answer that way could be chalked up to muddle-headedness or partisan mania, but what kind of Republican subscribes to such a theory? Not just that some criticism of a person of one race by a person of another might turn out, on closer inspection, to be racist, but that "all" of it is? What part of the Republican platform would appeal to someone with such a mindset?
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 47% of all ‘Likely U.S. Voters’ think Trump is a racist, down slightly from 50% in January 2018. Slightly more (49%) disagree and say his opponents are accusing him of racism only for political gain, up from 43% in the earlier survey,” said a pre-release analysis of the poll posted at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Other features in the analysis:
The partisan division of opinion couldn’t be any clearer. While 80% of Democrats believe the president is a racist, 85% of Republicans think the racism charges by his opponents are politically motivated. Voters not affiliated with either major party are evenly divided on the question. Thirty-two percent (32%) of Democrats, however, say it’s racist for any white politician to criticize the political views of a politician of color. That’s a view shared by just 16% of both GOP and unaffiliated voters.
Yeah, I'm surprised by the 16% figure as well. Have you seen the actual question? I can see at least some people answering this way if the question appeared to ask if criticism could be racist, or might be interpreted as racist but I would hope that the number of Republicans especially who considered it per se racist would be in the low single digits.
ReplyDeleteEither people are getting well indoctrinated, or the sampling in the survey is off in some way.
Here's a happier poll.
ReplyDeleteAnd here is the wording of the question. It's a short survey.
"1* Which is closer to your point of view – that President Trump is a racist or that his opponents are accusing him of racism for political gain?
"2* Is it racist for a white politician to criticize the political views of a politician of color?
"3* Does the term racism refer to any discrimination by people of one race against another or does racism refer only to discrimination by white people against minorities?"
Either people are getting well indoctrinated, or the sampling in the survey is off in some way.
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to see an age breakdown of the respondents. It seems, more and more, that logic isn't taught in K-12, in any guise, anymore.
Eric Hines
Considering that my gut reaction on reading that question was "well, it could be" even though I was primed to say no, I'm going to go with the assumption that it's likely people didn't interpret the question as asking if criticism was racist per se without having added an additional qualifier like, "Is it always racist for a white politician to criticize the political views of a politician of color?" or "Is all criticism of the views of politicians of color by white politicians racist?"
ReplyDeleteIf you don't read #2 carefully, you might assume it's asking whether that's a possible interpretation, not whether all such criticism is per se racist. If the question is that easy to misinterpret, maybe the 32% figure for Democrats should be taken with a grain of salt, too. For the rest of the day, in order to combat despair, I'm going to concentrate on the good news that, even among Democrats and even in this year's insane political climate, 68% refused to go along with such a silly idea.
ReplyDeleteI consider it my sacred civic duty to lie to pollsters on any question asked.
ReplyDeleteSo, when asked, I'll be rooting for "Mary Ann" Williamson as my first choice, and Tulsi "Grabber" as my second, with Donald Trump as my third best choice.
When asked, "the climate crisis" is an important policy issue to me.
If asked, I think reparations-for-slavery should be part of the national dialog.
Among polled questions, I report that the federal government and Department of Education, in Washington D.C., should pull more strings and provide much more funding in operation of local traditional school districts.
If asked, I will say I fully endorse raising the minimum wage.
Etc.
It's like helping pull a hilarious practical joke on the entire establishment media -- just to watch their faces as the actual election results come in.
I consider it my sacred civic duty to lie to pollsters on any question asked.
ReplyDeleteI see the next great Liberal cause: passing legislation making it a felony to lie to a pollster. Or to a pressman.
Eric Hines
J Melcher - it is amusing.
ReplyDeleteI do worry that as impression becomes more powerful than reality this could become dangerous. Example: When Bill Clinton was being impeached, he made a lot of the polling that 60% of the people did not want him removed as president. The newspapers and networks rode that hard. This was a true statistic. What was left out was that of that 60%, nearly half didn't care all that much and wouldn't be that angry if he were removed.