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Political Poll experiment...

lilwing88lilwing88 Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 2,787
You know how you always hear about this poll or that poll and you think to yourself, "Who takes these polls, cuz I've never been asked for my opinion?" Well, I just thought it'd be fun to take a poll here. This is an actual poll from Rasmussen. I know, it's a right leaning poll, which is why I used it. This way, you can see for yourself how the results lean.....

Here ya go:

1 - In political terms, is Barack Obama more conservative than you are, more liberal than you are or about the same?

2 - In political terms, is the average Republican in Congress more conservative than you are, more liberal than you are or about the same?

3 - In political terms, is the average Democrat in Congress more conservative than you are, more liberal than you are or about the same?

4 - Would it be more accurate to describe the agenda of Republicans in Congress as mainstream or extreme?

5 - Would it be more accurate to describe the agenda of Democrats in Congress as mainstream or extreme?

Comments

  • VulchorVulchor Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 4,176
    1. More Liberal than I am

    2. More conservative

    3. More liberal to about the same

    4. Extreme

    5. Mainstream-----but by a thread
  • lilwing88lilwing88 Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 2,787
    1. More liberal.

    2. About the same

    3. more liberal.

    4. Mainstream

    5. Extreme
  • cabinetmakercabinetmaker Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 2,561
    1. More liberal.

    2. More liberal

    3. more liberal.

    4. Mainstream

    5. Extreme
  • jsnakejsnake Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 5,037
    cabinetmaker:
    1. More liberal.

    2. More liberal

    3. More liberal.

    4. Mainstream

    5. Extreme
    +1 same answers for me
  • xmacroxmacro Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,402
    1) More liberal
    2) Depends on the Repub; can't say
    3) Almost all more liberal, but some/very few are the same, depending on the issue
    4) Mainstream, except for the Ron Paul types
    5) Depends on the Dem; Pelosi is a nutjob, but Lieberman is mainstream

    Biggest difference between Dem or Repub when it comes to the budget, is this: traditionally over the past few decades (eg - from before Reagan to around the last yr of G.W.Bush's 2nd term), spending has been around 18-20% of Gross Domestic Product, the size of the economy, somewhere north of $14 trill - so around $2.5 trillion (assuming no active wars). Under Obama, spending has increased to around 24% of GDP. Republicans see the proper baseline amount of Gov't spending as being around 18-20% of GDP - what it's traditionally been. Dems see the proper baseline amount of Gov't spending as 23-24%, or what has been typical under Obama ($3.5 - $3.6 trill, this yrs proposed budget).
  • Russ55Russ55 Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 2,762
    Wouldn't it be quicker to just say: Do you view yourself as a "liberal", or a "conservative"? Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the whole point.
  • wwesternwwestern Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 1,386
    They're all extreme crooks grabbing for power except ron paul types :)
  • VulchorVulchor Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 4,176
    xmacro:
    1) More liberal
    2) Depends on the Repub; can't say
    3) Almost all more liberal, but some/very few are the same, depending on the issue
    4) Mainstream, except for the Ron Paul types
    5) Depends on the Dem; Pelosi is a nutjob, but Lieberman is mainstream

    Biggest difference between Dem or Repub when it comes to the budget, is this: traditionally over the past few decades (eg - from before Reagan to around the last yr of G.W.Bush's 2nd term), spending has been around 18-20% of Gross Domestic Product, the size of the economy, somewhere north of $14 trill - so around $2.5 trillion (assuming no active wars). Under Obama, spending has increased to around 24% of GDP. Republicans see the proper baseline amount of Gov't spending as being around 18-20% of GDP - what it's traditionally been. Dems see the proper baseline amount of Gov't spending as 23-24%, or what has been typical under Obama ($3.5 - $3.6 trill, this yrs proposed budget).
    Lol......Lieberman isnt even a Democrat and you say "assuming no active wars" as an aside. Ever think part of the reason Obama had to increase said budget is in part due to those pesky "active wars". Bush's last 3 years were 2.6, 2.7, and 3.1 trillion btw, so while the estimated 3.5 trillion is a greater increase than any other past single year....not quite as much as is portrayed by some. Also, due to the recession and lower tax revenue it only makes sense that the % of GDP would be greater----even if the actual dollars remained the same.
  • xmacroxmacro Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,402
    Vulchor:
    Lol......Lieberman isnt even a Democrat and you say "assuming no active wars" as an aside. Ever think part of the reason Obama had to increase said budget is in part due to those pesky "active wars". Bush's last 3 years were 2.6, 2.7, and 3.1 trillion btw, so while the estimated 3.5 trillion is a greater increase than any other past single year....not quite as much as is portrayed by some. Also, due to the recession and lower tax revenue it only makes sense that the % of GDP would be greater----even if the actual dollars remained the same.
    A few points:

    1) Lieberman has always been a Dem his entire life, until his last election, when he lost the nomination but won the election. He counts as a Dem, especially since he caucuses with them. If you'll remember, he was recently a Vice Presidential candidate for the Dems and loved by them until he sided with Bush on Iraq and became a pariah of the Left

    2) You're wrong about Obama and the wars. Bush waged two wars for about 7 yrs - it took him 8 years to hike the debt by $2.5 trillion. Obama, who inherited the wars after most of the fighting was done, has hiked the debt by over $2 trillion in just his first year alone.

    3) Your point about the recession is incorrect - when the economy dips, it's true the TOTAL amount dips, but the PERCENTAGE, 18-20%, remains about the same.

    4) I'm still right about where Repubs see proper baseline spending and where the Dems see it - 18% vs 24% is a large difference, and the two views are irreconcilable

    5) This isn't Obama vs Bush, or who's the better President - this is about numbers from one year to the next, and they aren't in Obama's favor. You're entitled to your own opinion about what the proper amount of spending should be, but not your own facts.

    1st graph is from Wikipedia, which got it from a US Gov't/CBO report. 2nd image is from US Government Spending. Enjoy.
    image
    image
  • wwesternwwestern Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 1,386
    Arguing facts with marco seems to never be a good idea. He's got colorful graphs and *** how do you fight that?
  • xmacroxmacro Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,402
    Love me those graphs; sorry to lilwing for the derail :-/
  • fla-gypsyfla-gypsy Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,023
    jsnake:
    cabinetmaker:
    1. More liberal.

    2. More liberal

    3. More liberal.

    4. Mainstream

    5. Extreme
    +1 same answers for me
    + whatever
  • LasabarLasabar Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 4,457
    *Pokes Head in Thread*

    ......

    Ooops, wrong thread...

    *Backs out*
  • Laws4Laws4 Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 9
    1. More conservative
    2. More conservative
    3. More conservative
    4. Mainstream
    5. Mainstream

    Gandhi type here. Note: Mainstream does not mean good.
  • The SniperThe Sniper Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,910
    1 - More liberal than I am.

    2 - About the same?

    3 - More liberal than I am.

    4 - Mainstream

    5 - Extreme

  • stephen_hannibalstephen_hannibal Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 4,317
    fla-gypsy:
    jsnake:
    cabinetmaker:
    1. More liberal.

    2. More liberal

    3. More liberal.

    4. Mainstream

    5. Extreme
    +1 same answers for me
    + whatever
  • Ken LightKen Light Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,524
    1 - more liberal
    2 - more liberal
    3 - more liberal
    4 - mainstream
    5 - mainstream

    These are just guesses, I have no idea how liberal or conservative the "average" anyone is. IMO they're all below average anyway.
  • Ken LightKen Light Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,524
    I don't understand how any of you can call anyone in office anything other than mainstream...no one that's not mainstream gets elected, that's why they're all mainstream...
  • lilwing88lilwing88 Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 2,787
    10 people responded so far and here are the results:

    1 - In political terms, is Barack Obama more conservative than you are, more liberal than you are or about the same?

    90% say Obama is more liberal, 10% say more conservative, 0% say about the same

    2 - In political terms, is the average Republican in Congress more conservative than you are, more liberal than you are or about the same?

    50% say more liberal, 20% say more conservative, 30% say about the same

    3 - In political terms, is the average Democrat in Congress more conservative than you are, more liberal than you are or about the same?

    90% say more liberal, 10% say more conservative, 0% say about the same

    4 - Would it be more accurate to describe the agenda of Republicans in Congress as mainstream or extreme?

    90% say mainstream, 10% say extreme

    5 - Would it be more accurate to describe the agenda of Democrats in Congress as mainstream or extreme?

    20% say mainstream, 80% say extreme

    I'd like to keep this going, so if more people wanna participate I'll adjust the results as it goes.....
  • VulchorVulchor Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 4,176
    Wing...no disrespect meant here or to your questions, but with the exception of about 3 or 4 of us here.....Its kinda like a poliical version of the Borg Collective from Star Trek
  • xmacroxmacro Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,402
    Believe it or not, lilwing's not far off the mark with this; Rasmussen has a nice summary of the latest polling numbers here: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/content/search?SearchText=obama&SearchButton.x=0&SearchButton.y=0 - interestingly enough is this:
    Sixty-one percent (61%) of investors see Obama as more liberal than they are. Forty percent (40%) of union members say their political views are about the same as the president's, compared to 22% of non-members. But nearly as many union members (38%) say the president is more liberal than they are.
    . . . . .
    Republican voters are slightly less critical of the job their representatives in Congress are doing, but most still think the legislators are out of sync with the party base. Democratic voters, by contrast, are not as happy with the performance of their congressmen as they were a year ago.
    . . . . .
    Recent polling shows that voters remain more conservative when it comes to fiscal issues than they are on social policy, but 29% still say they are conservative in both areas. In January, “conservative” was viewed as the most popular political label one can put on a candidate, while “liberal” and “progressive” lost ground even among Democrats.


    Gallup puts Obama in a dead heat with an unnamed Republican contender, but Obama pulls ahead by a few percentage points when names like Romeny, Gingrich (who's compaign is almost certainly over), Pawlenty, etc start coming into the mix: http://www.gallup.com/poll/election.aspx

    And before it gets said again - I love polls and graphs - I'm a political junkie Stick out tongue [:P]

  • VulchorVulchor Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 4,176
    No problem Macro----also I loved a little comment on SNL a few weeks ago that was something like Gingrish would win the Rep Notimation...if the early 90's were allowed to vote.----------Just struck me a little funny.
  • lilwing88lilwing88 Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 2,787
    Vulchor:
    Wing...no disrespect meant here or to your questions, but with the exception of about 3 or 4 of us here.....Its kinda like a poliical version of the Borg Collective from Star Trek
    None taken...... I knew the poll would probably end up skewed to the right or far right.... That's why I called it an "experiment". That way, good or bad, it doesn't really mean anything.
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