Here in Wisconsin the progressive Democratic Senator, Russ Feingold, polled far ahead of John Kerry, garnering the support of 10% of Bush supporters. This is the one Senator to vote against the PATRIOT Act. He also opposed the Iraq war and is a long-time supporter of universal health care, if not a single payer plan. Oh yeah, and he opposed the bigotry of the anti-gay marriage amendment.
Kerry was an empty suit who didn't stand firmly for anything, and he got 48% of the vote! I think it's too early to shut the lid on the potential for progressive nation-wide successes, despite the disappointment of the most recent presidential election.
Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote: Jordan Hayes wrote:
>Don't you mean that you're tired of living in a country where, _of the
>people who vote regularly_, more people believe in angels than
>evolution?
I'm afraid it's just as I said. Some snippets from Gallup (which has a funny definition of evolution in the first excerpt):
>Most recently, in Gallup's February 19-21 poll, 45% of respondents
>chose "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at
>one time within the last 10,000 years or so," the statement that
>most closely describes biblical creationism. A slightly larger
>percentage, almost half, chose one of the two evolution-oriented
>statements: 37% selected "Human beings have developed over millions
>of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this
>process" and 12% chose "Human beings have developed over millions of
>years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this
>process."
>
>The public has not notably changed its opinion on this question
>since Gallup started asking it in 1982.
>Although belief in God seems to have remained relatively stable over
>the last several decades, Gallup research indicates that belief in
>some other supernatural beings may be on the rise. In 1994, 72% of
>Americans said they believed in angels, and that percentage has
>increased to 78% today. Belief in the devil has increased from 55%
>in 1990 to 70% in 2004.
>Since 1997, belief in heaven has ranged between 72% and 83%.
>According to Gallup's most recent May 2004 Values and Beliefs poll*,
>81% of Americans currently say they believe in heaven, 10% are
>unsure, and 8% do not believe. As expected, regular churchgoers are
>more likely than others to say they believe: Virtually all (98%) of
>those who attend church weekly do so versus 89% who attend "nearly
>weekly" and 64% of those who say they attend church seldom or never.
>
>Belief in heaven is relatively high across all other demographic
>groups. The relatively high religiosity of Republicans is reflected
>here: 90% say they believe in heaven, compared with 82% of Democrats
>and 72% of political independents. Nonwhites are somewhat more
>likely than whites to believe in heaven (89% compared with 80%).
>Regionally, Southerners are somewhat more likely to believe in
>heaven (90%) than those in other regions are. Those with a high
>school education or less are more likely to believe than those with
>at least some college education.
>More recently, Gallup asked Americans if the devil is something they
>believe in, something they're not sure about, or something they
>don't believe in. Sixty-eight percent said in a May 2001* poll that
>they believe in the devil, 20% said they don't, and 12% said they
>aren't sure. Majorities of Americans of every political inclination,
>region, educational level, and age group said they believe in the
>devil.
There's nothing comparable anywhere else in the first world.
Doug ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
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