I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Sunday, April 11, 2010

The poll I've been waiting for

A Gallup Poll on who the Tea Partiers are. Very interesting. Would like to see what the actual questions were, but I'm good with the numbers. Also, the one question they didn't ask, or this doesn't show, is who are the ones showing up for the rallies, and which are just the sympathizers.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So what have you learned? Anything that surprised you?

Anonymous Cassie

Steve Buchheit said...

Cassie, not too much, since I've been schooled by you and other friends on the movement. I would have been more helpful to see the actual questions used, and any follow-up issues (like if they explained any of the generic terms used, or followed up to find out how much they support/identify, etc).

That the survey shows a general cross section isn't surprising from what I've heard back from those in the movement. That the majority identify as "conservative" doesn't surprise me from viewing it from the outside. That they are very upset with HCR isn't surprising (even though it will reduce the debt).

Again, numbers I'd really like to see would be the level of involvement, and an "do you agree with (policy statement on the national level)" survey, and the "active/support" levels (and what the demographics of that would be).

Anonymous said...

I wonder why those questions aren't released or reported in the coverage. Those are significant items in assessing the value of the survey (and its bias.)

Anonymous Cassis

Steve Buchheit said...

Especially the one question on how they react to certain people, but then only give us the person's affiliation. Hell, I don't like everybody in the Democratic Party.

And what's strange is some of their reports they do give the exact wording of the questions, but they seems to have abstracted them here (which can sometimes mean they asked similar questions that had slightly different wording to suss out small differences).

Maybe my frustration with it is that the poll is a little light, and I wanted to see more data.