Saturday Open Thread [5.31.14]
It is a gorgeous Saturday! What are you doing on this near perfect day? There’s lots of house projects going on here.
Over at the Daily Kos, we discover an interesting recent poll done by the Robert Sage Foundation. This poll purports to have surveyed the 1% as well as the 99% to compare attitudes to various economic and political programs. (NOTE: I can’t find the actual poll results, so no idea what the internals look like. Meaning I have no idea how they define the 1%, or how the screened for this, or even the sample size. FYI) But take a look:
Disheartening, right? This is an interesting companion to the Governor 1% piece and questions around whether progressive politics are being redefined. Because you can see from this list the priorities of Congress certainly and even of our local Congressional delegation. And just more evidence that the people asking you for their votes (at least at the Congressional level) have no intention of representing you or your interests.
Also interesting is this Memorandum from the folks at the Populist Majority. They’ve compiled the polls assessing Americans’ attitudes on various economic and political issues, and conclude that Americans are more populist than the Red vs Blue categories might show.
What do you think about Americans as a more populist nation?
We should all be super skeptical of this poll (or supposed averages of polls) – 68% of the hoi polloi believes the government should be responsible for finding food, clothing, shelter, and a job for anyone that wants it? Twice as many people support a centrally planned economy than voted for Obama in either election? Either people didn’t understand the question, or there’s some serious methodological errors going on.
Yes, people vote against their own self-interests (and often), but as much as I want this to be true, it strains credulity.