attempted birdhouse, one
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.cfm?ID=1642
This is not exactly surprising, but it is certainly disturbing. Now this is clearly the work of a right leaning group, which you can see from the questions asked. The questions about obama don't bother me. That very few connected Obama to bankrupting the coal industry, that's a little factoid that came out very late in the election process, and McCain didn't do a good enough job promoting it. The various other questions likewise, maybe it's not great, but it doesn't really bother me. Here's what bothers me 94% knew that palin had a teenage daughter, 86% knew that her wardrobe cost 150,000 and 81% knew that McCain said he didn't know how many houses he had. Okay, that's fine being aware of those things. But if you are going to know that McCain couldn't answer how many houses he owns (he does have some excuses having to do with real estate investments and his rich wife) you ought to know that Obama claimed to have campaigned in 57 states, which is at least as big a gaffe. only 23% said that was obama while a combined 22% picked either McCain or Palin. Clearly they were under the impression that only a republican could be stupid enough to say that, but they'd be wrong. And the piece de resistance, only 42% could accurately say that the democrats controlled congress. Repeat please. 58% of people who voted for Obama could not name which party controlled congress. So you everyone know's about palin's daughter, and McCain's house, but less than half can name the party controlling congress. This is a double indictment of the media and the electorate. Clearly the media focused so much on personal non-issues of the republicans that, is what most stuck in people's mind. But it's not like information isn't out there. People have nobody to blame but themselves if they aren't interested enough to figure out who is in charge. This is an isolated poll, and may be incorrect, but polls all the time show the shocking ignorance of the american people. I believe a similar 40% know that there are 3 branches of government. I don't remember other statistics, but there are plenty just as bad if not worse. All i can say, is it's about time we had some exams for voting. Who is the president, who is the vice president, what party is in charge, who is your governor. The concern is in disenfranchising voters. First off, i have no problem with disenfranchising voters who can't answer those questions, and secondly, if there were questions, i think the main impact is that more people would read a thing or 2 about politics, if for no other reason then to pass the test and get their vote counted. People ought to be ashamed and embarrassed, and there in lies the real problem, we live in a society where nobody is ashamed or embarrassed of lacking this very basic information, they just laugh it off.
This is not exactly surprising, but it is certainly disturbing. Now this is clearly the work of a right leaning group, which you can see from the questions asked. The questions about obama don't bother me. That very few connected Obama to bankrupting the coal industry, that's a little factoid that came out very late in the election process, and McCain didn't do a good enough job promoting it. The various other questions likewise, maybe it's not great, but it doesn't really bother me. Here's what bothers me 94% knew that palin had a teenage daughter, 86% knew that her wardrobe cost 150,000 and 81% knew that McCain said he didn't know how many houses he had. Okay, that's fine being aware of those things. But if you are going to know that McCain couldn't answer how many houses he owns (he does have some excuses having to do with real estate investments and his rich wife) you ought to know that Obama claimed to have campaigned in 57 states, which is at least as big a gaffe. only 23% said that was obama while a combined 22% picked either McCain or Palin. Clearly they were under the impression that only a republican could be stupid enough to say that, but they'd be wrong. And the piece de resistance, only 42% could accurately say that the democrats controlled congress. Repeat please. 58% of people who voted for Obama could not name which party controlled congress. So you everyone know's about palin's daughter, and McCain's house, but less than half can name the party controlling congress. This is a double indictment of the media and the electorate. Clearly the media focused so much on personal non-issues of the republicans that, is what most stuck in people's mind. But it's not like information isn't out there. People have nobody to blame but themselves if they aren't interested enough to figure out who is in charge. This is an isolated poll, and may be incorrect, but polls all the time show the shocking ignorance of the american people. I believe a similar 40% know that there are 3 branches of government. I don't remember other statistics, but there are plenty just as bad if not worse. All i can say, is it's about time we had some exams for voting. Who is the president, who is the vice president, what party is in charge, who is your governor. The concern is in disenfranchising voters. First off, i have no problem with disenfranchising voters who can't answer those questions, and secondly, if there were questions, i think the main impact is that more people would read a thing or 2 about politics, if for no other reason then to pass the test and get their vote counted. People ought to be ashamed and embarrassed, and there in lies the real problem, we live in a society where nobody is ashamed or embarrassed of lacking this very basic information, they just laugh it off.
posted by Trashcan at 11/21/2008 02:09:00 AM
5 Comments:
i just finished my literature review on youth political participation.
only 49% knew that the Republican Party held a majority in the House of Representatives in 2006; only one in four 18- to 24-year-olds think government officials have a major impact on their lives, and 70% say they have no interest in jobs related to govt or politics. perceived govt corruption and biased media were key factors in the drop in confidence in govt.
Yes well not being interested in government, and thing that who runs the government won't have an effect on their lives is one thing, that doesn't bother me at all. But that's no excuse to know what's going on in the world. That's no excuse not know who's in charge. Actually not that i think about it, maybe it is. If it doesn't matter who's in charge, then there's no point in knowing. But if that's your attitude then you should relinquish your right to vote.
That's funny, I just made a post on my blog on probably the same statistics, though i got them from a different source. Regarding this being an isolated poll, the clip I watched is introduced by a statement the the poll was conducted to do research for an upcoming documentary about how the media won this election for the communist.
Yes, well the study was obviously done by a right wing group, and while i certainly agree that the media was biased, the fact of the matter is that all this information was out there if anyone was interested in reading it.
the point is that the majority of voters aren't interested in getting the information, or they think they are getting when if fact they are not. it sucks that they're stupid enough to get duped. i'd say duped so easy, but when there are hundreds of newspapers taking part in the brainwashing, maybe it's not that easy to resist.
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