We at DU are out of touch, according to Pew.

[MyUncle]

Check this out. Link to whole article - http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1472/public-priorities-president-congress-2010

The stuff that fans our flames and recs are way down the list. I need a job, but I need a planet as well. Global Warming is dead last. Health Insurance and Financial Regulation are 1/2 way down the list of the top top concern percentages.

Yet our party is all about Health Insurance, Financial Regulation and Global Warming. Perhaps that is where the some of the disconnect is?

I for one need a job. I am unemployed 2x in the past year and I need a job!

[Tansy_Gold]

1. Those of us in the daily SMW and week-end WEE threads

are most definitely in touch.

We've known literally for years that the economy is the #1 issue, even if it's not the #1 priority.

Without a healthy, well-functioning economy, there is nothing else.




Tansy Gold

[nosmokes]

2. why is terrorism a priority for 80% ?

I don't get it. You're more likely to be struck by lightning than get involved in a terror attack in the states.

[timeforpeace]

6. Maybe they don't think that's the point. Someone, anyone getting "involved" is too many for some.

[aquart]

7. That's what I was going to ask.

Of all the wastes of money and time, terrorism is such a fake worry.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. It's because people are scared.

And the previous administration did all they could to foster that environment.

Easier to lose our freedoms if we're convinced that doing that will protect us from the terrorists...

I think that's why.

:shrug:

[MyUncle]

10. My point exactly, "I DON'T GET IT"

I don't either.

If this is accurate, the stuff we get hot about (other than the economy) is way, way down the ladder in terms of people's hierarchy of needs.

Look where the military is. Abortion does not even make the list.

If you don't get and I don't get it, perhaps we and our party ARE disconnected?

[nevergiveup]

13. Fear Rules

It always has and it always will. The videos of the airplanes flying into the World Trade Center are embedded in our minds forever and the media and politicians know it.

[Terra Alta]

14. because terrorism is the latest boogeyman

we are all supposed to fear.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, we needed something else to worry about... "terrorism" is it.

[Strelnikov_]

28. Cuz terra-ism is bad . . M'kay n/t

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

33. In mid-2001, it was sharks (n/m)

[rug]

3. Curious that War is not a category.

Terrorism and military are more soothing terms.

[daleanime]

4. Let's see....

Medicare at 63, deficit reduction is 60, health care totals 57, and helping the poor captures 53.


And they all get better with single payer health care(not prefect just better). Can you name a single piece of legislation that could do more?

[spanone]

5. i'm surprised they even put global warming on there...such nonsense

the people i know are not that stupid

[Captain Hilts]

25. Your friendships are self-selecting. This was obviously asked as an open-ended question

and the responses were categorized.

You'd NEVER read a list this long over the phone.

[Armstead]

Trade policy, lobbyists and finance regulation IS the Economy and Jobs

Defining "the Economy" and "Jobs" is just a matter of how deep you want to go.

[Atman]

8. I simply don't buy this poll. Is Pew right-wing?

Terrorism is #3? Social Security is #4? Does anyone have any way to actually verify these findings? IOW, could Pew simply make up any numbers it wants which reflect its own agenda? Just saying, this list looks totally bogus, and I know I'm not just "projecting" my own wants and wishes. No way in bloody hell that Americans are more concerned with "deficit reduction" or "terrorism" than they are with their own health care. But of course, I could be an outlier.

:eyes:

.

[MyUncle]

15. Pew is not a Repub org.

If anything is see them as left of center. Not where we are, but not in the Fox News camp.

[HughMoran]

18. far from it

I'd take the poll at face value. In fact, based on the average people I talk to, this result doesn't surprise me at all. Of course the more complex issues are lower down the list - people just don't understand complex issues in this country.

[liberal_at_heart]

19. This does sound suspicious

Terrorism at 80%? Moral decline? Deficit reduction when unemployment is so high? And they put the environment and global warming as seperate issues. Hello! Global warming is an environmental issue. This poll sounds very suspect.

[Atman]

21. That's my point, with deference to HughMoran and MyUncle

The numbers don't make sense. Hey, I talk to lots of people, too. I work in politics. I just don't hear anything like this poll is suggesting. When has "deficit reduction" ever ranked so much higher above issues which actually impact people's daily lives? There is just something not right about this poll.

.

[Captain Hilts]

23. It was probably asked as an open-ended question and the responses categorized.

You would NEVER read such a long list over the phone.

You never read more than, say, five.

[undeterred]

11. What the fuck is moral decline doing in a Pew poll?

[aquart]

12. They phrased it "helping the poor" instead of "poverty"?

WHO are the people they interviewed?

[GreenStormCloud]

16. Remember Bill Clinton's 1992 Campaign? "It's the economy, Stupid".

That sign was in every office. And that recession from Bush 1.0 was a very mild recession, especially compared to this monster that Bush 2.0 left us with. People are concerned with what effects them directly, right now. Global Warming is a maybe future threat. Remember that about half the population votes RW, and they have RW concerns, such as Moral Decline. But everybody is concerned about their job.

[Kat45]

17. It's interesting that tax cuts are way down in the list--since that's all repubs talk about

Since that is such a huge issue with repub candidates--I even remember Scott Brown mentioning it--I wonder why anyone would go with that party. Although I suppose they present themselves as the tough on terror folks. I also find it odd that terrorism is so high on the list, particularly when I'm guessing many of those polled live in places like Podunk where they are highly unlikely to have direct contact with it.

[MyUncle]

20. Fear is not rational.

I have relatives, they are older. When the DC sniper was shooting people, they canceled a trip to Florida. They had to drive from CT to Florida. They are not dummies, but they were scared.

I used to go to Mexico, TJ, Rosarita Beach just to have dinner.

I have not gone to Mexico in years. I am afraid, that I'll be the odd "struck by lightning" statistic.

It is not rational, but I am afraid to go and I will not go to Mexico for now.

[Captain Hilts]

22. DU is not at all representative of Democrats as a whole or voters as a whole. nt

[liberal_at_heart]

26. Only time will tell. We shall see in November

Because unless there are some progressive candadites I predict there will be alot of democrats either not voting or voting for a third candadite.

[Iggo]

24. Pew!

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

29. Terrorism over education...

If education were a priority, we wouldn't have any of the other problems.

[MyUncle]

30. I appreciate your optimism, but ...

you can't educate our way out of many of these challenges.

[TheWatcher]

31. We can't get out of these challenges worrying about fake boogeymen either.

Now if 80% were on to who the REAL terrorists were, then we'd have something.

Sadly, this is not the case.

They are still fearing men in Caves instead of Castles, as it were.

And thus they are manipulated as cattle.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

32. It's hardly optimism, it anything is a sad

acknowledgment of what should be and never will. An educated populace
would never tolerate the wars, would never be vulnerable to an economic draft.
Without the wars the economic problems would not exist. But, that will never
happen so sorry I even mentioned it.

[Capers]

34. The agreeable stuff doesn't make for good flaming.

[GeorgeGist]

35. As I'm sure you are aware ...

the mainstream is fucking retarded. St. Ronnie made that a reality.