Two disturbing polls
January 22, 2008 — wickleI went to Rasmussen Reports to look up poll numbers for various states, and instead saw two headlines that terrified me:
51% Say Security More Important than Privacy
57% Want Troops Home from Iraq Within Year
Sadly, neither seems to have been a survey of Iranians. Apparently, these are US folks stating these insane things …
Sadly, what’s worst about these numbers is the seeming cognitive dissonance — the majority which favors security at the cost of privacy surely has at least some overlap with the majority that wants to pull troops out of Iraq. Sadly, this leads me to think that a majority of respondents are listening to hysteria rather than reason.
The government has expanded tremendously in the name of national security, and has currently demanded power over nearly every piece of information, has bypassed warrant requirements for investigations, and now wants to dictate the procedures for state ID’s. (This, by the way, seems to fly in the face of states’ rights … which is supposed to be rather a conservative issue.)
On the other hand, the other majority wants to give up on Iraq … I’m not sure how to reconcile that with the idea that security is so important.
Sadly, I’m not sure that those overlapping respondents know, either. These two opinions are getting a lot of press, and it’s easy to buy into them without a lot of evaluation.
Especially when one of the issues relates to giving the federal government tremendous new powers and the other will the define the foreseeable future of international events, it bothers me that these issues aren’t being given more consideration.
January 22, 2008 at 12:32 am
I find the “Security More Important than Privacy” exteremely terrifying.
I think the overlap comes from many who think that the war in iraq (and our troops being there) doesn’t increase security, and might actually be harming it.
January 22, 2008 at 7:25 am
I hope that you’re right. Of course, public opinion swings around so much, I’m afraid that I just doubt it.
I think that if I could come up with a catchy slogan, probably with a clever rhyme in it, I could win the majority back for supporting the war …
January 22, 2008 at 9:35 am
You’re (sadly) right Wickle … if you could come up with a good slogan, the masses would get in line behind it. The thing I find most disturbing about these (and most polls) is that the majority does not do a lot of thinking, they just answer based on the sound-bite they heard on CNN or a headline they read on Yahoo (without bothering to read the story).
The same thing is happening in the Presidential race. I am amazed at the numbers of people that don’t stick with a candidate, but change their “votes” to whoever has the momentum, the buzz, the best PR person, whatever.
January 22, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Good, eye-opening post, Wickle. It is shocking how far we have come from the founding fathers who prized freedom above security.
Onemom,
I am frustrated as well at how many people can change their opinion about important things with hardly any thought. A sound bite, a commercial, a rumor is all it takes.