Public Opinion

*This data is not new - it was collected Feb. 24-28, '05.
Still, it's worth examining.

Washington News - New York Times:

Americans say President Bush does not share the priorities of most of the country on either domestic or foreign issues.

Initially, I went through the trouble of posting a number of the questions and responses as they appear. But this post was way too cumbersome and hard to read, so I summarized a few points being fair to the verbage of the poll.

The results are striking. What I want to know is, what's the deal? Most Americans now think we should have stayed out of Iraq (50% - 46%). They're opposed to military action in North Korea even if North Korea continues to develop nuclear weapons (59-33), and they're against attempts to change any dictatorship into a democracy (59-27).

By another huge margin, they don't believe that President Bush has developed a clear plan to deal with the situation in Iraq (71-21). Nearly two-thirds of Americans think that the President's priorities don't line up with their own (63-31 on domestic issues; 58-37 on foreign policy).

Three-quarters of Americans want some level of availability for abortion (75-23). Most also favor some legal rights and recognition for same sex couples (57-41 or 53-42, depending on how the question was asked). They name a need for changing Social Security (61-33) but think individual investments of Social Security is a bad idea (51-43; 69-22 when asked what they think if their guaranteed benefit were reduced by up to a third). Most favor raising the amount of income that is subject to Social Security taxes (61-31) and raising S.S. taxes (49-46) but oppose raising the age of retirement / receiving benefits (77-19).

Further, most Americans say their views are more in line with or they better trust Democrats on each of these issues - abortion (45-35), legal recognition of same sex couples (42-37 or 44-36, depending on how the question was asked), and social security (48-31).

On a whole host of issues, our great nation is not being led in the direction that most people believe it should be. Sometimes, of course, leaders must lead against the tide; to attempt to do so on so many issues, however, is a display of some mix of ignorance, ego, and selfish ambition, not to mention lack of concern for us common-folk, "we the people".