The above probably seems likes a no-brainer to most of our liberal readers, but really what I mean is that conservative views in mainstream America seem to be fueled by lack of information or misinformation (from the right) . A great example is the infamous poll conducted prior to the Iraq war in which 70% of Americans said they believed Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks (the number has now dropped to around 25%. I'm not sure exactly whether that's fortunate or unfortunate). Of course, about that same amount supported the war at the time.
Today, I saw a Gallup poll (linked above) in which 83% of those polled said they believed the federal minimum wage should be raised (a specific wage was not asked in the poll, though I've seen similiar polls where about the same percentage agreed to a 6.50 per hour increase). However, Gallup also asked what respondents believed the minimum wage currently was. The mean response was $6.09 and the median response was $6.00! Of course, the current minimum wage is $5.15, as it has been for the last 8 years.
No wonder people vote Republican! The either don't know many Republicans are against raising the minimum wage (or the more conservative in favor of abolishing it entirely), including many Republican voters, and/or they believe Democrats are crazy leftists or beholden to greedy economy-busting unions for trying to raise it so often because they believe it already to be significantly higher than what it is currently. More importantly, this misbelief means that, for many voters, raising the minimum wage is not as pressing an issue and/or one they would be as passionate about than if they knew the truth (this especially makes me glad about the seeing movement across the country to put minimum wage increases on statewide ballots in something for liberals akin to the conservative gay marriage ballots).
Another issue is environmental protection in which most Republicans, according to polls, agree with stricter corporate regulation, yet enviromentalist Democrats and Republicans get labeled extremists time and time again by the media - and the public often believes it.
Again and again, I see this kind of thing on many issues. Americans are misinformed about the truth, many - including Republican voters - don't know the radically conservative positions Republican politicians stand for, and they believe inaccurately that Democrats are to the left of their position. This just shows that we must work that much harder to get people informed, as it is key to attaining political victory in the future.
Friday, January 06, 2006
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3 comments:
It's difficult to cut throught the GOP spin and bullshit, but it's crucially important to make people aware of the real facts. Making these issues-the environment and minimum wage-crucial issues in upcoming races is the best way to put them front and center and get the average voter to be aware of the disconnect between GOP politicians and the average voter.
It goes even deeper. Before moving to Washington state, I was one of the leaders of Oregon's Green Party. Every so often, we would hold registration drives. What amazed me again and again is that people would identify themselves as a Dem or Republican, but few folks could tell me why. If you asked them what they thought their party of choice stood for, most would become very uncomfortable and hem and haw a lot.
Even worse, they would say things like, "I could never register Green". When asked why, they didn't really know. They simply had a vague understanding that Greens are commies, treehuggers, socialists, liberals or something like that.
When I'd show them our platform, most would nod their heads, "Yeah, I agree with a lot of that stuff."
The two party duopoly wants to keep people in the dark. They want people confused and apathetic. It makes THEIR lives (not ours, of course) that much easier.
Now that's just sad. That people don't even know where their own parties stand on issues that are important to them, or that 3rd parties stand closer to their point of view, is just pathetic. I suppose you could argue that voters need to do more research, and that's always true, but because it's always true that's also less so the point. The point is both parties choose to monopolize the messages and frame the debate.
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