Are AOL Members Conservative or Progressive?

I believe the Company execs are on the conservative side, but AOL has an interesting, members only, Bush vs Kerry poll going on right now. Each member gets one vote per month, and the poll begins anew each month.

Members aqre asked "If the election were held today, who would you vote for?" The choices are Bush, Kerry, and Nader. About 20,000 people have participated this month.

The results? For June, Kerry has the equiv. of 420 EC votes, Bush 118, Nader has none!

Kerry takes every state except Utah (where Bush wins with only 51%), and a solid strip through the south, excluding Florida.

Kerry takes Florida with 57%.

These results are pretty impressive, considering that the poll is member only with no opportunity for multi voting, and a cross section of the US is represented. I've always thought AOL members were a bit on the conservative side. If so, Bush is TOAST baby!

[Wickerman]

1. Not sure, but they ARE either captive or ill-informed

Either you use AOL cuz you have no other choice (and that is increasingly unlikely) or you use AOL because you have no clue what being on the internet is about, what are reasonable fees for monthly service, and have odd ideas about how much interference in your surfing experience is tolerable.

Hmm - ignorant and willing to have rights violated? Might just be Republican.

[Bluzmann57]

2. Well I'm on aol

and I don't consider myself a conservative at all. However, I'm on aol only until February, when my contract with them expires and I can legally get off of aol and find a better ISP. Politics has nothing to do with it, just economics and better service. Anyway, to sterotype aol users, or anyone else as one type of person or another isn't right.

[billbuckhead]

3. Lost on the information superhighway?

:crazy:

[Bluzmann57]

5. I'm sorry I don't measure up to your standards

No I'm not. If you don't approve of my isp choice, I'm pretty sure I won't lose any sleep over it. This is supposed to be the Campaign 2004 thread, and I intend to keep it on campaign 2004. If you have anything else to say to or about me, IM me.

[JDPriestly]

4. AOL

Many people are with AOL because they don't want to change the e-mail address with which they started using the internet. Lots of AOL members are older. That they don't know much about computers doesn't mean they are stupid. It just means they didn't grow up with computers -- or televisions -- or cell phones -- or answering machines, for that matter. Don't be ageist.

[Justitia]

11. absolutely correct on this

We have AOL because of the elderly mbrs of our family. My grandmother and older in-laws find the AOL interface sooooo much easier to use, and they LOVE to see other family mbrs online when they sign on (via buddy list feature). They also like to be able to check the status (read or not) of mail they send to others.

The easy click-around links for them take them to places on the internet they never would have explored with just an internet connection. It seriously simplifies their foray onto the information superhighway.

Also, I like how all the new filters cut down on the porn/viagra e-mails that seriously freaked my grandmother out - she could hardly sleep thinking these freaks knew where she lived - ha, ha.

So, we use AOL really just for family e-mail and I do all my serious surfing by direct broadband access via IE. Since we have broadband, I only pay $11/mo for AOL - well worth my access to Granny!!

6. You guys are clueless!

I'm on AOL because every other month I call to cancel, and AOL (whose membership #s are going down faster than a $10 hooker) offers me two free months of service to stay on.

In the last year, I've paid for only 4 or 5 months of service!

I know a little about the internet. I've been "online" longer than Internet Explorer. LOL! I own my own domain, and until my job was shipped toIndia, I worked as a tech support rep for Microsoft, connecting folks to the Internet in a number of standard and non-standard methods

Try as you will, you'll not make me feel dumb for paying about 10 bucks a month for unlimited access and free 24/7 customer service. I won't always be on AOL, but I'll stay as long as it's a free ride.

Now, how about you respond to the post, not my choice of ISP. :)

[Bluzmann57]

7. OK if aol members are generally conservative

then the numbers you put up are impressive. It looks pretty good for Kerry. But that may be because bush is a clueless moron and people are finally catching on.

8. Well if AOL members are stupid...

Then why aren't they supporting the idiot in chief, eh?

Thanks for a straight answer Bluzmann!

[markdd]

9. AOL Users Tend to Be More Conservative

It seems that most polls on AOhelL tend to favor conservatives and conservative positions. IIRC Bush had a LARGE lead over Gore in at least one of their 2000 polls. I recall being surprised when one fell towards Kerry or against the war.

Or, it could be that more polls get freeped and DU'ed than we might imagine.

AOhelL user since my ongoing job search started in 1997. Too many resumes out there with AOL in the address. Slooowly converting them all to Charter.

edit for grammer

[Vogon_Glory]

10. On AOL Members

My experience with AOL membership is highly colored by my political discussions with an organized ring of extreme-right would-be goons infesting the AOL political message boards. Very few of these were interested in genuine political discussion--they were far more interested in promoting Runnin' Dubya Posse and extreme-right propaganda. If they'd limited themselves to posting their comments or even spamming from their pet right-wing sites, they'd have been tolerable.

These--people--went way beyond that. It went to posted character assassination, stalking, mailing virus-laden e-mails, attempted hacking of AOL members' web sites, and in a couple of cases, trying to get "liberal" or "leftist" AOL members fired from their jobs.

To the best of my knowledge, AOL never went after these creatures with anything resembling forcefulness or a firm hand. I left AOL not only because I got fed up with their service, but also because of my disgust with these little cherubs' antics.

I believe that even without these charming little mothers' blessings, AOL members tend to be more conservative than the rest of the population. But while Freeped polls and disruption may give the naive the impression that their fellow AOL subscribers are in lockstep with George Deucey-U Bush, even disinformation, deceit, distortion and harassment can only go so far.


John F. Kerry has a fighting chance of becoming the next President of the United States in January, 2005.

[SW FL Dem]

12. I've been on AOL for years

The political polls and message boards are generally VERY conservative. I have seen a slight shift in the past year, more and more people are speaking out against Bush but I still think the majority of AOL members are republican.