I read today in electoral-vote.com the following reader letter:
I think their proposed question is a good one and it prompted me to start a thread to disuss useful ideas to poll in politics, and how to word the question to make the data meaningful.
So add your thoughts.
What are the pros and cons of wording the question this way?
What other political topics would be good to poll, and how would you word the question?
J.F. in The Bronx, NY, writes: If a pollster were to ask me if I thought "the country" was moving in the right or wrong direction, I would not know how to answer the question properly. On the one hand, I think the fragile coalition of progressives and moderates that the Democratic Party leadership has cobbled together are doing their level best to move the country in what I feel is the right direction. But on the other, there are large numbers of election denying/vote suppressing radical-right Republicans aiming to move the country in the wrong direction. The threat they pose is palpable and adds to my angst about where we are going. I consider their actions to be downright un-American. But, are they not part of "the country" too?
Perhaps it is the inherent lack of clarity of the question that leads to situations where 50% of Americans want the Democrats to control Congress despite 82% of us thinking "the country" is headed in the wrong direction. Maybe a better question for getting to what, I think, the pollsters really want to know, would be: "Is the __________ Party attempting to move the country in the right direction?
I think their proposed question is a good one and it prompted me to start a thread to disuss useful ideas to poll in politics, and how to word the question to make the data meaningful.
So add your thoughts.
What are the pros and cons of wording the question this way?
What other political topics would be good to poll, and how would you word the question?