RE: OK, Nathan
www.leninology. blogspot.com wrote:
polls on policy, there is a clear basis for a left-wing populist political movement and party in the United States.
Show me.
Alright, here’s a bit from Ivins’ latest:
“The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush’s tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.
“The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do “whatever it takes” to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax.”
Problem is you could cite polls showing the opposite in most cases - which isn’t a fault of polling so much as a deep confusion in the American mind. A lot of the folks who took the correct side of the poll questions almost certainly voted for Bush, and candidates who take these positions regularly get crushed. Crushed - not losing honorably, with a respectable minority of the vote, but shares in the single digits, e.g. Dennis Kucinich.
Doug