Take that, GOP! A newly released poll, “Moral Dilemma: Which Morals?”, conducted by Westhill Partners/The Hotline should give pause to those who fear having the Democratic Party push a “values-oriented platform” in upcoming election cycles.
Democratic: 44%
Republican: 40%
And there’s plenty more to be pleased about in the results, some surprising, others less so. There’s definitely stuff here that can be gainfully exploited to prevent the GOP from trying to ram through a social agenda which the American people do not support.
More below.
I won’t attempt too much of a detailed analysis, since the poll results should basically speak for themselves. Analysis was conducted by Ed Reilly (Dem) and Ed Rollins (Rep), so there shouldn’t be any overt partisan bias in the presentation. In addition to the written summary linked to above, there is also a series of graphical representations available, as well as the full questionnaire, showing the complete percentage breakdowns. If anything, the poll sample was slightly biased in favor of self-described Bush voters (a 9% edge over Kerry).
I’d encourage everyone to go look at the results for themselves, but for those who may not have the time or desire to do so, here are some of the items that jumped out at me. From the summary:
How that plays out on what was supposed to have been a defining issue for the GOP can be seen here:
Gay marriage: 12%
Poverty: 86%
Interestingly, there was no statistical difference by party affiliation in the response to this question.
When asked of different values that our nation’s leaders should promote, “promoting ethics and honesty” was by far the one most often selected by respondents, with 86% naming it as “very important” (all other choices came in between 54% and 60%). Democrats were perceived as better representing this value by a margin of 10% ahead of either Bush or the GOP. For another value deemed very important by 54%, “encouraging greater tolerance”, Democrats held an edge of over 40%. Not too shabby.
I’m sure some could find a lot more to be happy about here, while others may be rather skeptical about the usefulness of these results. Feel free to comment, kvetch, laud, etc., not only on these results and on the non-values sections of the poll (more bad news for Bush and the GOP, as expected), but also on values issues more generally.