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Is the country on the right track or wrong track? Polling questions

Rhea

Rhea

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I read today in electoral-vote.com the following reader letter:
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?
Click to expand...

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?
 
I definitely agree--what's important is whether we are heading towards or away from the track.
 
The question is a good one but too broad.
It would need to be done as separate questions i.e.
1. Is party X moving in the right or wrong direction?
2. Is party Y moving in the right or wrong direction?

Then perhaps elaborate on why they answered the way they did.

Then look at the perils of a balanced survey by the most estimable Yes Minster team.
 
Our nation is heading in the wrong direction, in general. But what part is doing so and why is a bit more complicated.
Tigers! said:
The question is a good one but too broad.
It would need to be done as separate questions i.e.
1. Is party X moving in the right or wrong direction?
2. Is party Y moving in the right or wrong direction?
Click to expand...
Yes, Party GOP is moving in the very wrong direction, but I think what matters more is that their base has been as well, and is further along in the wrong direction. The GOP and their base are caught in a feedback loop. Getting as bad as rioting at the Capitol building to stop certification of a vote over claims that the President never challenged formally in court.
 
Tigers! said:
The question is a good one but too broad.
It would need to be done as separate questions i.e.
1. Is party X moving in the right or wrong direction?
2. Is party Y moving in the right or wrong direction?
Click to expand...

Relative to what though? I mean, suppose that every American answers that question opinions would depend on party affiliation. In that case we'd get an obvious split making the question useless. Now if I were to consider the direction of America juxtapose with both my personal beliefs and what's going on in other countries you'd get a better read on the population.
 
The question is a good one but too broad.
It would need to be done as separate questions i.e.
1. Is party X moving in the right or wrong direction?
2. Is party Y moving in the right or wrong direction?
Click to expand...

Is the Democratic Party moving in the right direction?
I would definitely say yes on at least 2 big fronts:

They are moving ahead with important legislation that will genuinely help people and improve infrastructure and hopefully also the environment. They are also helping to inspire some pushback from within some states regarding some draconian measures such as abortion bans. I'm thinking most recently of the Indiana abortion ban and Eli Lilly and Cummins pushing back, saying that it will be difficult to recruit people to Indiana. How much follow through will happen is really up in the air. If they started talking about moving some operations to some more liberal states, that would help. I doubt that will happen but maybe??? For those who do not know, those are two very major employers in Indiana. I'm waiting for IU and Purdue (the two biggest universities in Indiana) to jump aboard. If Notre Dame did, that would be a)extremely shocking and will NEVER happen but b) extremely helpful. Many universities are struggling now because there is a smaller generation of students who are available to attend their universities. Pointing out that this is a negative to their recruitment efforts is yet another strike back at the law. Of course, much of this is simply clawing back what was lost during the previous administration and trying to get the US on an even keel again.

The other way that they are moving in the right direction is the Jan 6 Committee work and the charges that will be coming from that--and hopefully prosecutions and convictions and sentences. I mean: FBI raid on Mar A Largo???? Made my day.

Of course, all of this depends upon the Democrats keeping and expanding their majority in the House, expanding in the Senate and holding on to the presidency.
 
Toni said:
I'm thinking most recently of the Indiana abortion ban and Eli Lilly and Cummins pushing back, saying that it will be difficult to recruit people to Indiana. How much follow through will happen is really up in the air. If they started talking about moving some operations to some more liberal states, that would help.
Click to expand...
This is exactly the sort of thing that got Pence into so much trouble, politically, that he threw in with Trump when Trump was such a long shot.
Tom
 
TomC said:
Toni said:
I'm thinking most recently of the Indiana abortion ban and Eli Lilly and Cummins pushing back, saying that it will be difficult to recruit people to Indiana. How much follow through will happen is really up in the air. If they started talking about moving some operations to some more liberal states, that would help.
Click to expand...
This is exactly the sort of thing that got Pence into so much trouble, politically, that he threw in with Trump when Trump was such a long shot.
Tom
Click to expand...
Really? Not that Trump is a crazy treasonous meglomaniac with dementia? Not Pence's response to the AIDS crisis? People I know in Indiana loathed Pence long before Trump.
 
Toni said:
TomC said:
Toni said:
I'm thinking most recently of the Indiana abortion ban and Eli Lilly and Cummins pushing back, saying that it will be difficult to recruit people to Indiana. How much follow through will happen is really up in the air. If they started talking about moving some operations to some more liberal states, that would help.
Click to expand...
This is exactly the sort of thing that got Pence into so much trouble, politically, that he threw in with Trump when Trump was such a long shot.
Tom
Click to expand...
Really? Not that Trump is a crazy treasonous meglomaniac with dementia? Not Pence's response to the AIDS crisis? People I know in Indiana loathed Pence long before Trump.
Click to expand...

Yes, really.

I loathed Pence long before Trump.
What hammered him, politically, was having global corporations, like Cummins and Lilly get angry. That's what did him in. Fortune 500 companies carry a lot more clout than I do.
Tom

ETA ~This is a bit of a derail~
 
I mean, I think there is some merit in understanding how many people are disatisfied or distrustful of their governmental leadership generally. Even if they are pulling in different directions, it's economically and politically relevant to get a sense of how many people feel optimistic about the future of the nation-state, and how many do not. But, there does need to be follow-up if you want to infer anything reasonable about the causes and directionality of citizen unease. If anything, history teaches us that we should expect society to be tugging its discontents in wildly different directions, whenever general civil confidence is starting to break down. Lack of trust in authorities is the root cause of many a sociocultural invention. Tomorrow's cults are gastrulated against the uterine margin of today's uncertainties.
 
Politesse said:
I mean, I think there is some merit in understanding how many people are disatisfied or distrustful of their governmental leadership generally. Even if they are pulling in different directions, it's economically and politically relevant to get a sense of how many people feel optimistic about the future of the nation-state, and how many do not. But, there does need to be follow-up if you want to infer anything reasonable about the causes and directionality of citizen unease. If anything, history teaches us that we should expect society to be tugging its discontents in wildly different directions, whenever general civil confidence is starting to break down. Lack of trust in authorities is the root cause of many a sociocultural invention. Tomorrow's cults are gastrulated against the uterine margin of today's uncertainties.
Click to expand...
Yes. And of course that is the long game at work these days: sowing distrust of the most treasured of US institutions, undermining belief in the system, even with its imperfections. And then exploiting the cracks until it all falls apart and can be rebuilt into a fascist state.
 
I think my country is on the wrong track. But I think our political parties are symptoms or reflections not a cause of the wrong course.
 
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