...with a helping of government health insurance and isolationism!
A column in the Los Angeles Times gets me interested in Americans Elect, a new effort to conduct a nationwide online primary to nominate a Presidential candidate to challenge the Republican and Democratic nominees.
As I take the organization's issues survey, I find the following interesting results about those who've already logged in and registered their views with Americans Elect. I see no data on how many fellow citizens have taken this survey, so validity is out the window... but Americans Elect says this morning that individuals have answered over seven million questions. I took a swing at 202 questions offered (yes, slow Saturday morning!).
Let's compare:
- On the first survey item, 74% say "To make this country great, we should keep building and adapting for the future," compared with only 25% who say "To make this country great, we should return to the examples and values of our forefathers."
- On reducing the deficit, 78% favor combining tax increases and spending cuts. 44% would lean more heavily on tax increases; 34% would rely more on spending cuts. The absolutists who want just one or the other are nearly evenly split: 10% for just spending cuts, 9% for just tax increases. A mixed plan with more taxes than cuts is the most common answer in most states, including South Dakota. Only a band of Southern states, plus Kansas and Utah, have a plurality of votes for more cuts than taxes.
- A majority either strongly or somewhat support raising gasoline taxes.
- 77% of my fellow respondents agree with me that same-sex couples should be allowed the same legal rights as non-same-sex couples.
- A question on whether it was America's duty to intervene in Libya to protect the people and support democracy draws uneasy responses. 12% strongly agree, 35% (including me and a plurality of Minnesotans) somewhat agree, 24% (including a plurality of North Dakotans) somewhat disagree, and 27% (including pluralities of South Dakotans, Montanans, and Wyomingians) strongly disagree.
- Building more nuclear plants gets majority support (even I can offer cautious support for trading fossil fuel plants for nukes... and working harder on fusion!). But South Dakota is one of a handful of states where a plurality strongly opposes building more nuclear power plants.
- 52% of respondents say we should require everyone to buy health insurance and subsidize premiums for low-income folks. Another 18% say require everyone to buy health insurance, period.
- 33% say the government should provide health insurance for everyone. Another 48% would settle for a "public option," with Uncle Sam insurance available to everyone alongside private insurance.
- 78% say the current tax system favors the rich. Only 2% say the tax system treats rich, middle-class, and poor equally.
- 67% of respondents agree with me that the poor should pay lower tax rates than the middle class and the rich.
- 90% say we are losing the war on drugs.
- 57% agree with me that the risk of executing an innocent person makes the death penalty unacceptable.
- 81% think that they are about as safe now as they were before President Obama bagged Osama bin Laden. (That result diverges significantly from poll results immediately following bin Laden's killing back in May.)
- 70% say most we should withdraw most U.S. troops from overseas.
- 73% say we should get less involved in international issues.
If you're interested, take the Americans Elect "My Colors" survey... and stay tuned for the upcoming candidate matching and draft functions!
And now for a bit of midnight navel-gazing for all to see ... here is how I come out on these bullets.
On the first survey item, 74% say “To make this country great, we should keep building and adapting for the future,†compared with only 25% who say “To make this country great, we should return to the examples and values of our forefathers.â€
+ Why can't we do both? Didn't our founding fathers have the future in mind when they built our country?
On reducing the deficit, 78% favor combining tax increases and spending cuts. 44% would lean more heavily on tax increases; 34% would rely more on spending cuts. The absolutists who want just one or the other are nearly evenly split: 10% for just spending cuts, 9% for just tax increases. A mixed plan with more taxes than cuts is the most common answer in most states, including South Dakota. Only a band of Southern states, plus Kansas and Utah, have a plurality of votes for more cuts than taxes.
+ I say both cuts and taxes, more or less equally split.
A majority either strongly or somewhat support raising gasoline taxes.
+ Maybe. I'm not sure about that one.
77% of my fellow respondents agree with me that same-sex couples should be allowed the same legal rights as non-same-sex couples.
+ Absolutely I agree.
A question on whether it was America’s duty to intervene in Libya to protect the people and support democracy draws uneasy responses. 12% strongly agree, 35% (including me and a plurality of Minnesotans) somewhat agree, 24% (including a plurality of North Dakotans) somewhat disagree, and 27% (including pluralities of South Dakotans, Montanans, and Wyomingians) strongly disagree.
+ I somewhat agree.
Building more nuclear plants gets majority support (even I can offer cautious support for trading fossil fuel plants for nukes… and working harder on fusion!). But South Dakota is one of a handful of states where a plurality strongly opposes building more nuclear power plants.
+ I say build the cotton pickin' things and make them as safe as we can. But not on a fault line or hurricane zone or tsunami-prone shore, for Pete's sake.
52% of respondents say we should require everyone to buy health insurance and subsidize premiums for low-income folks. Another 18% say require everyone to buy health insurance, period.
+ No mandates necessary in my view because ...
33% say the government should provide health insurance for everyone.
+ That's me.
Another 48% would settle for a “public option,†with Uncle Sam insurance available to everyone alongside private insurance.
+ Second best.
78% say the current tax system favors the rich. Only 2% say the tax system treats rich, middle-class, and poor equally.
+ I say it favors the rich. Can't we see that by merely looking at the income-skewing trends of the past 30 years?
67% of respondents agree with me that the poor should pay lower tax rates than the middle class and the rich.
+ Absolutely. But the poor should pay something.
90% say we are losing the war on drugs.
+ Doggone right we are.
57% agree with me that the risk of executing an innocent person makes the death penalty unacceptable.
+ I agree with that, but more importantly, any Governor who signs a death warrant, and any population who allows it to happen, risks standing before the Lord God on the Judgment Day, each and every one with bloody hands. (You bet you're sweet bippy I'm serious.)
81% think that they are about as safe now as they were before President Obama bagged Osama bin Laden. (That result diverges significantly from poll results immediately following bin Laden’s killing back in May.)
+ I agree with the 81%.
70% say most we should withdraw most U.S. troops from overseas.
+ And for God's sake not engage in any more ill-advised, deluded adventurer-conquerer fantasies.
73% say we should get less involved in international issues.
+ Isolation hasn't worked in the past, and I doubt it would work now. We can be involved without meddling, though, can't we?
I am intrigued by the combination in the survey results of strongly "liberal" sentiment on environmental and energy issues and the strong isolationist sentiment in the foreign policy responses. The results also showed plenty of anti-government sentiment, with more respondents saying they lack confidence in their state officials just as they lack confidence in the federal government. (Of course, with no cross-tabs available, I can't rule out the possibility that there's large overlap between the folks who distrust their state government but who trust the feds, and vice versa.)
Spending and taxes: that's one of several questions where I was disappointed that the survey did not include the happy medium you suggest, relying on both roughly equally. AS had a polling firm create the survey, so I'm sure they have their reasons for that wording. The results will be sued to match respondents with candidates, so perhaps requiring respondents to prioritize one policy over the other keeps the algorithm cleaner?