Fwd: New Presidential Campaign Poll: most people don't give a shit

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>From: "Jose G. Perez" <jg_perez at bellsouth.net>
>To: "Marxism List" <marxism at lists.panix.com>
>Subject: New Presidential Campaign Poll: most people don't give a shit
>Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 00:58:10 -0400
>
>There's a new poll out by a respected bourgeois think tank, the
>Pew Research Center, and it reveals most Americans don't give a shit
>about the presidential election, and aren't paying all that much
>attention to the farce.
>
>From the analysis of the results:
>
>* * *
>
>Do Elections Still Matter?
>
>Not only are many Americans turned off by the current campaign, a
>significant number say it doesn't much matter who is eventually
>elected. Nearly half of Americans (49%) believe things will pretty
>much stay the same regardless of who is elected; less than half (45%)
>say that, as far as making progress on the important issues facing the
>country is concerned, it really matters who wins the 2000 presidential
>election.
>
>While there is a clear generational divide on these questions, with
>younger people more skeptical that the election matters, education and
>income are also important factors. For example, 57% of those whose
>education ended with high school say conditions in the country will be
>the same regardless of who is elected in November. That compares to
>only 38% of college graduates.
>
>Independents are more likely than party loyalists to express doubt
>about the election's significance. Fully 37% of independents say it
>doesn't make much difference who's elected president, compared to 28%
>of Democrats and 23% of Republicans. Similarly, 58% of independents
>say things will be the same regardless of who is elected in 2000, vs.
>45% of Democrats and 41% of Republicans.
>
>* * *
>
>The full poll results are here:
>
>http://www.people-press.org/june00rpt.htm
>
>Needless to say, the hacks at bourgeois newspapers and the actors who
>play journalists on TV are ignoring the results of this poll, and
>presenting instead the typical, doctored horse-race polls, which are
>statistically manipulated to eliminate the opinion of the majority of
>Americans that don't usually vote.
>
>José
>
>Beyond that, fully one-third of the public believe that Gore and Bush
>do not have well-defined policy differences. This perception is
>strongly linked to feelings about the importance of the upcoming
>election. Among those who say the candidates have similar issue
>positions, 62% say things will remain the same, regardless of who wins
>in November. Among those who perceive the candidates as having
>different positions, only 38% hold this view.