by John and Jeremy Zogby
John
It has become cliche to say that Americans have lost their way. In this majority view, we are not simply victims of hyper-polarization, we are perpetrators. We have lost respect for the “other” side and we are lost. In the famous words of the cartoon Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
That’s why it is important to take several steps back and look at the heart and soul of America. It is one thing to watch and read the news but totally another to live in our communities and see goodness all around. When I drive through my city and nearby villages, I see posters advertising a chicken or spaghetti dinner benefiting a neighbor with cancer or a child who needs an organ transplant. I see neighbors helping neighbors. I recall a story when I was out of town in the late 1980s and received a call that my father-in-law had suffered a serious heart attack. My car died on a dark highway and I was able to roll into a convenience store at about 1 AM. A local teen worked on my car and got it fixed enough so that I was able to get home with my wife. I had given him my card and he called me the next afternoon to see if I was okay. He told me he had gone home, picked up his father, and they drove about 40 miles in my direction to see if I was on the side of the road. They figured I had made my destination.
We have met wonderful people and they are us. That is the context for this first round of polling. We are more than ideologues who hate each other. And we have not lost hope. We still work on improving ourselves.
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Jeremy
Political polling often asks questions that result in the public boxing themselves into opposing camps with results at loggerheads.
But this Boomer pollster and Millennial pollster have grown tired of two-dimensional polling – Liberal vs. Conservative, Democrat vs. Republican, etc.
The reality is few Democrats are 100% liberal, and few Republicans are 100% conservative. Just like the founding of our nation and our constitution, there is an overlap of conflicting philosophies that successfully molded together (e.g. Federalist and Anti-federalist tenets, Lockean and Hobbesian principles).
A favorite question over the years has been polling American voters by offering descriptions of Libertarian and Communitarian tenets of governing philosophy, and asking which comes closer.
Keeping in line with the theme that we are much more than our perceived ideological camps, it is a fact that part of being human is to be a contradiction. No one is purely consistent in their beliefs.
A good way to apply that to a political survey question is to opt for a multi-punch in place of statement A vs. B format (which is still very useful in probing values). Here is what it looks like applied to asking the public about tenets of Libertarian and Communitarian sentiment.
John Zogby Strategies April 23 Survey
1,000 US likely voters [MOE +/- 3.2 pp’s]
Please select the statements that best align with your philosophy of government [Select all that apply]
- Emphasis on securing the freedom of the individual by limiting the power of government (42%)
- Government should use bold and swift action to right wrongs where there is inequality and injustice (38%)
- That government which governs the least governs the best (34%)
- A preference for civil liberties with a limited government under the rule of law (34%)
- Commitment to each other over individual uniqueness (27%)
- Emphasis on the role of the community in defining and shaping individuals (23%)
- An attitude of a laissez-faire government toward the conduct of private business (13%)
It’s more like the Dao of polling, that is, seemingly conflicting ideas/philosophies actually co-exist within the worldview of voters.
A plurality (42%) of overall voters select the choice “emphasis on securing the freedom of the individual by limiting the power of government,” and 38% believe “government should use bold and swift action to right wrongs where there is inequality and injustice.” Looking at party ID, among Democratic voters, bold and swift action is the most selected choice (53%), but notably one-third (34%) select “that government which governs the least, governs the best.”
On the flip side, among Republican voters, 51% opted for the government’s role being securing freedoms through limiting the government’s power, yet 25% selected bold and swift action.
The Independents round it off by being slightly more Libertarian in sentiment as 41% chose the above Libertarian principle, but still one-third (34%) opted for bold and swift action, and 27% chose “commitment to each other over individual uniqueness – another Communitarian tenet offered.
When polling allows Americans to go beyond either/or, data reveals many of us each have our internal spectrum of tenets that is perhaps more real than the door that seals us shut into one box at loggerheads with the other.
It is one thing to watch and read the news but totally another to live in our communities and see goodness all around. When I drive through my city and nearby villages, I see posters advertising a chicken or spaghetti dinner benefiting a neighbor with cancer or a child who needs an organ transplant. I see neighbors helping neighbors. I recall a story when I was out of town in the late 1980s and received a call that my father-in-law had suffered a serious heart attack. My car died on a dark highway and I was able to roll into a convenience store at about 1 AM. A local teen worked on my car and got it fixed enough so that I was able to get home with my wife. I had given him my card and he called me the next afternoon to see if I was okay. He told me he had gone home, picked up his father, and they drove about 40 miles in my direction to see if I was on the side of the road. They figured I had made my destination.
We have met wonderful people and they are us. That is the context for this first round of polling. We are more than ideologues who hate each other. And we have not lost hope. We still work on improving ourselves.