Today I received a survey in the mail from the “National Republican Congressional Committee” asking 12 questions about the day’s important political issues. Always willing to make my political opinions known I took a look through the survey thinking that I’d fill it out and have my voice heard. Now, anyone with half a brain knows that when designing a survey you want to write questions that are as “neutral” as possible… for example, if you want to report in the news how people feel about the war in Iraq you could do so by asking “Do you agree with the decision to send U.S. Troops to Iraq?” Or, if you wanted to skew the results of your poll you might ask “Are you in favor of facist President Bush’s decision to send young, uneducated men and women to Iraq to be senselessly slaughtered just so that W’s friends in the oil industry can buy cheaper crude oil?” Either way your headline will be “XX% of people against war in Iraq,” but the way you ask the question can get you totally different answers.
So, I looked at this Republican survey and had to laugh at some of the invalid, leading questions that these people are asking.
- “Do you support the Democrats’ ’slow-bleed’ strategy to ‘choke-off’ funding for our troops in Iraq leading to their withdrawl and a perception of American defeat?”
- Yeah… this isn’t leading at all. And who is going to admit that they want to support a “perception of American defeat?”
- “Do voters in Maine’s 1st district agree with the Nancy Pelosi Democrat Majority’s decision to impose massive tax hikes on the American people?”
- First off, am I really qualified to tell you what the entire 1st district agrees with? Second, have there been any massive tax hikes imposed since the Democrats took over Congress? I don’t recall any…
- “Do you support Democrat’s efforts to give federal government bureaucrats complete control of your health care costs and choices?”
- I’m no fan of socialized medicine, but “giving federal bureaucrats complete control” seems to be overstating the issue a bit. Also, the last time I checked Congress makes the laws in this country… so wouldn’t they, our elected representatives, be making any choices assuming all health care were government run.
- “Should the Democrats’ proposal to not just legalize, but to madate cannibalism be voted into law?”
- This wasn’t a real question, but I wouldn’t put it past them in their next survey.
Be careful what you believe, especially when it comes to poll data.
