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The 82% factor. Can’t we all just get along?

Posted by JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor in Economy, Politics.
May 14th, 2008 | Comments

One of the more amusing, yet thought provoking, responses to recent news that 82% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track came from Rick Moran at Right Wing Nuthouse.

Are you paying attention? 82% of your fellow countrymen think that America is a sucky place to live right now.

Holy Jesus! You can’t get 82% of Americans to agree about anything. I’ll bet less than 82% of Americans like chocolate ice cream. I would wager that less than 82% of Americans like McDonalds hamburgers. And I’d bet the farm that less than 82% of Americans like old re-runs of The Carol Burnett Show even though I believe you have to be brain dead not to recognize its brilliance.

About the only thing that 82% of Americans might agree on is that they like sex.

While Rick may be correct in thinking this is dangerous news for John McCain and the Republican brand, it did get me to thinking… how many things are there that 82% of Americans could agree on? Right off the bat I think we can ignore some of the non-optionals like breathing air or eating delicious food as being “good” in the opinion polls. Ditto for other abstract concepts like “being healthy” or not getting shot in the face with a shotgun.

Would that many people all agree that pollution is bad? Sounds like it should be an easy call, but what if a certain percentage of the respondents thought that answer would make the sound like hippies, or opponents of industry? Would 82% like to pay less taxes? You might think so, but good luck with that. You won’t hit that figure in the current climate of opposition to the Bush tax cuts. How about puppies? Or kittens? Again… should be a clear, universal concensus, but lots of people don’t want to have pets. I bet we could find 18% who would vote no on puppies and kittens.

Baseball? Nope. Not since the year of the big strike anyway. Hot dogs? Chevrolet? Not going to happen. Apple pie? Hell, a third of the people I know don’t like apple pie at all. So much for the standard American icons. Perhaps Rick is right… maybe sex is the only thing 82% of us could agree on. Heck, I might even give you 85% on that one.

Any other suggestions?

UPDATE: From the comments section, OutOfContext ironically points out that George W. Bush had an 87% approval rating in November of 2001. At both ends of the spectrum, I guess he truly was a uniter after all.

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pacatrue

Vacation? Everyone likes vacation. Which means that the way to get people to think the U.S. is headed in the right direction is to give more time off.

runasim

Moran makes a great point, partially because it falls in line with my thinking about Independents.
It's the consensus opinion that the rise of Independent voters is a good thing..
But who are they? Can they really enhance more centrism or will they bring more instability?

My ideal would be to have many more independent minded members in both major parties, rather than independent people estalibhsing a separate political space. Too many parties appear to undermine stability in countries that have them. I wonder if party-like groupings would have the same effect?

If the 82 % dissatisfied all registered as Indepencdents. What would that lead to?

superdestroyer

runasim, there are actually fewer real individuals in that there are fewer people who will swing their votes between the two parties. If you ran a dead man for president and put (D) next to the name, the dead man would be about 45% of the vote. The equivalent candidate with (R) would get about 35% of the vote. That means a Republican presidential candidate needs to get most of the 20% of the vote that swings (actually less since they only need the swing voters in a few states).

As the demographics of the U.S. change, there will come a time when the automatic (D) number will be greater than 50%. People forget that one of the things helping Democrats is that blacks are voting at nearly the same rates as whites. If Hispanics voted at the same rate as whites, the Republican Party would be irrelevant today.

So the better question is what will dissatisfied people do when the U.S. is a one party state?

OutOfContext

November 2001, President Bush 87% approval. CNN poll.

Jazz

Ooooo... good one, OutOfContext! Hadn't thought of that!

CStanley

Probably much easier to find things that 82% of Americans dislike or oppose, which is also probably why politics is often based around conjuring up negatives and fears.

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