Lately there’ve been a lot of articles like this one compiling various polls that show that Americans are fed up, ticked off, and righteously furious.
You know the sort I mean: “A new Rasmussen survey has found that 85 percent of Americans believe that members of Congress ‘are more interested in helping their own careers than in helping other people'”; “A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll discovered that 73 percent of the American people believe that the nation is ‘on the wrong track'”; “A recent poll taken by Rasmussen found that 68 percent of Americans believe that we are actually in a recession right now.” (All from the link above.)
That’s supposed to show how shockingly cynical (or discouraged or angry) we’ve become. And … yeah, they’ve got a point.
But don’t you always wonder the same thing I do? Who the blankety-blank are the 15 percent who believe congressthings aren’t strictly out for their own interests? And can 27 percent of Americans (or for that matter Canadians or Frenchmen or Lower Slobovians) possibly believe the U.S. is on the right track? And is it really even remotely conceivable in this universe or any other that there are 32 percent who are so media-sodden and blinded by cooked gov-stats that they believe we’re not in a recession?
Well, of course, pollsters are only counting the folks who accept phone calls from pollsters. So naturally the stats they come up with are absurdly trusting.
Or at least I hope that’s the case. Because if those stats are representative of people’s real state of mind, you’d have to be very nervous around those delusional 15, 27, or 32 percenters.
Maybe that minority are either huge president supporters (he’s right no matter what – I actually know one or two people who say that) Or maybe it’s people related to, or employed by, members of congress. 🙂
There are, unfortunately, people who like the idea of a dictatorship. Usually under the mistaken impression that the rules of the dictatorship will mesh with their own ideas of how people should act. Much like that parking-lot lady you ran into a few days ago.
There are also a few people who choose the answer they think will mess with the pollster’s head the most. Much like putting “Elven” as you race/ethnicity on the census form. We don’t know anybody who would do a thing like that, do we? *innocent whistling*
Maybe those percentages represent the numbers of time they got busy signals, unintelligible replies, or hung up upon?
Might actually be self identified tea party members because we know their opinions don’t count.
A couple jobs ago, I worked with a guy who admitted he sent in extra money on his taxes(the box marked “voluntary contribution to national debt”-or some such as that)and tried to convince others that this was a good idea. I made the statement that you could wad the same amount of money up and wipe your @$$ with it and get more benefit than sending it in. This did not go over well(this guy was a high-n-mighty jerk)..Well, why not take the money out and buy something from Farmer Fred’s roadside veggie stand? You’d be doing orders of magnitude more good with it-both of you benefit. I’ve met people who complained Florida didn’t have a state tax(I kid thee not). Lotsa loonies out there..
I have several friends on FB (colleagues, for the most part) who are smart, professional, and well-educated. They still defend in and believe in O.
Perhaps they focus in on what’s important to them? When I voted for Bush, I was voting based on the 2nd Amendment and to prevent leftists from getting on the SC. By those standards, he was a pretty successful President. While there was a lot I disagreed with, I felt that he did a good job overall. But yeah – my opinion was certainly biased.
Two ‘friends’ are gay – so I think that plays a huge part in it.
But yeah, I’m confused as well….
I don’t worry to much about the percents that haven’t figured it out yet – as much as I worry that even tho so many people (the majority it seems) are fed up and mad as hell, they keep getting ignored entirely……..
I guess I really should stop hanging up on these folks after the first five words are out.. but I always figured they would NOT like my answers anyway.
“Go to hell” seems to figure prominently in many of them and is considered rude…