Tag: gallup
Covid-19 vaccine protest in Brooklyn, NY.

Poll: Unlike Other Americans, Republicans Increasingly Reject Science


Reprinted with permission from American Independent

New polling released Friday by the public opinion research firm Gallup finds that Republicans are far less confident in science than they were four decades ago, posing a major challenge to the ongoing campaign to get Americans vaccinated against the Coronavirus.

A total of 64 percent of Americans told Gallup they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in science, down slightly from the 70% of Americans who said the same thing in 1975, the last time the organization asked the question.

But that small drop in confidence overall comes almost entirely from changes in Republican responses: Just 45 percent of Republicans say they're confident in science today, compared to 72 percent who said they were confident 46 years ago.

Democrats, meanwhile, report an increase in confidence in science, with 79 percent saying they're confident today versus 67% in 1975. The 2021 poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,381 American adults from June 1 through July 5, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Gallup notes that this 34-point difference in confidence between Republicans and Democrats is among the largest partisan gaps measured for any of the U.S. institutions they asked about, exceeding that of newspapers (27 points), organized religion (25 points), and the military (16 points).

Only the partisan split on confidence in the police and the presidency were greater, with Republicans' confidence in the police 45 percentage points higher than Democrats', and Democrats' confidence in the presidency 49 points higher than Republicans.'

Gallup's finding comes at a time when White House officials and public health professionals are raising the alarm on vaccine misinformation. Speaking from the White House briefing room Thursday, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy decried misinformation about the Coronavirus vaccine as an "imminent and insidious threat to our nation's health," releasing a 22-page advisory in which he said responding to it was a "a moral and civic imperative."

In recent weeks, Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations have been back on the rise, as the highly infectious delta variant spreads. Those who have been infected are overwhelmingly unvaccinated individuals, according to experts, with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky saying last month that adult deaths from Covid-19 are "at this point entirely preventable" thanks to vaccines.

Still, misinformation about the safety and efficacy of those vaccines continues to proliferate, primarily on social media and right-wing television. Hosts on channels like Fox News and Newsmax have repeatedly undermined vaccine safety and critiqued the Biden administration's vaccination campaigns.

Studies have found a gap in vaccination rates between counties that supported former President Trump in the 2020 election and those that supported President Biden, with July data showing 47 percent of those living in Biden-supporting counties were fully vaccinated compared to a 35 percent vaccination rate in counties that broke for Trump.

Though numerous factors impact the rate of vaccination in a given county, experts point to misinformation on right-wing media as a key component of the partisan vaccination gap.

"If you have constant exposure to an outlet that is raising vaccination hesitancy, raising questions about vaccinations, that is something to anchor you in your position that says, 'I'm not going to take the vaccine,'" Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania, told the New York Times.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Poll: More Americans 'Socially Liberal’ In Generational Shift

Poll: More Americans 'Socially Liberal’ In Generational Shift

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

For the first time more Americans identify as "socially liberal" than conservative, revealing a huge double-digit swing over the past two decades.

Gallup reveals 34 percent of Americans now say they are socially liberal, 30 percent conservative, and 35 percent identify as moderate.

But as the pollster notes, in 2001 "social conservatives had a clear advantage over social liberals -- by 12 points, on average." That started to change in 2013, and now socially liberal has pulled ahead, representing a huge 16 point swing from 2001 to 2021.

Americans' "self-described economic views," Gallup finds, "have remained predominantly conservative over the past two decades."

In a separate report this month Gallup looked at views on sex and marriage, finding Americans increasingly "tolerant."

"Views that gay and lesbian relations are morally acceptable have increased from 40 percent to 69 percent, having a baby outside of marriage from 45 percent to 67 percent, sex between an unmarried man and woman from 53 percent to 73 percent, divorce from 59 percent to 79 percent, polygamy from seven percent to 20 percent, and sex between teenagers from 32 percent to 43 percent. (All but one of these issues were first measured between 2001-2003; the baseline for sex between teenagers is 2013)."

Trump’s Convention Made People Less Likely To Vote For Him

Trump’s Convention Made People Less Likely To Vote For Him

To be frank, most polls aren’t worth writing about. Especially in this election season, with its day-long, Serlingesque controversies and without much substantive talk of policy proposals or qualifications, polls come and go with the tone of the news cycle.

But when a poll displays a real change of course from the historical example, it’s worth noting. Such a poll was released today.

After the Democratic convention, 45 percent of respondents to a Gallup poll said they were more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton, compared to 41 percent who said they were less likely to vote for Clinton.

Donald’s is a different story: After the Republican convention, just 36 percent of respondents said they were more likely to vote for Trump, compared to 51 percent who said they were less likely to vote for him.

The same trend held for views of both conventions overall: Respondents viewed the Democratic Party more favorably after their convention, 44-42, but they viewed the Republican Party less favorably after the RNC, 35-52.

In short: Trump may have been better off skipping the convention altogether. Gallup explained the bizarre results:

Gallup has asked this question about Democratic and Republican national conventions since 1984, with the exceptions of the 1984 and 1992 Republican conventions. The 2016 Republican convention is the first after which a greater percentage of Americans have said they are “less likely” rather than “more likely” to vote for the party’s presidential nominee.

Trump has pointed to a victory in the initial television ratings for both conventions: 34.9 million watched his speech, while only 33.8 million watched Clinton’s, on average, across 10 broadcast and cable channels and PBS.

But Gallup’s polling suggests there may have been plenty of people in Trump’s audience who were convinced by his speech — to vote for someone else.

 

Photo: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S., July 28, 2016.  REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Gallup: Hillary’s Supporters Are More Entusiastic Than Bernie’s

Gallup: Hillary’s Supporters Are More Entusiastic Than Bernie’s

Don’t believe your Facebook feed’s pro-Sanders bias.

Bernie Sanders’s fans are often portrayed as hyped-up youngsters infatuated with the Vermonter’s long record of progressive legislation, and his passion for leveling out the economic playing field. In comparison, Clinton voters support the staid “establishment” – despite Clinton’s being a trailblazer in nearly everything she’s done.

Yet according to a recent Gallup poll, 54 percent of Clinton supporters are “very” or “extremely” enthusiastic about her candidacy, while the same is only true of 44 percent of Sanders supporters. While Bernie Sanders does dominate the under-30 vote, notably in Michigan and Iowa, his voters aren’t more excited about him than Clinton’s are about her.

Amanda Marcotte, writing for Alternet, argues that media bias could be clouding the real story:

It’s not hard to see why this false narrative that Sanders inspires more enthusiasm has taken root. He is the challenger running up against the favorite, and it is known that everyone likes an underdog. That, and his surprisingly robust chances against Clinton suggest a rising tide narrative, again not unfairly.

On top of that, most journalists who echo the Sanders enthusiasm narrative spend a lot of time on social media, and if you do that, then it’s safe to say that it looks like Sanders is inspiring a lot of enthusiasm. There is an explosion of memes and chatter about the “revolution” and sharing every single story they can find that says something positive about Sanders’s chances.

It’s not that Hillary doesn’t have her own memes and pop culture moments — they just get lost in the sea of content, and are often drowned out by those who dislike her or her surrogates, whether pop confectionary Katy Perry, feminist punching bag Lena Dunham, or unexpected rabble-rouser Madeleine Albright. There’s plenty of passionate prose about Hillary and how she’s perceived, from sexism to the art of the smile.

On the Republican side, the contest isn’t nearly as close. Although Donald Trump is revolting to millions of future voters, those who love him really love him. John Kasich and Ted Cruz are far more milquetoast to the Republican and Republican-leaning voters Gallup surveyed. Despite Cruz’s reputation as an sharp-toothed constitutionalist, just 39 percent of those surveyed are enthusiastic about him, compared to Trump’s 65 and Kasich’s 33.

Democrats who are “not too” or “not at all” enthusiastic about their preference are nearly evenly split in their indifference to Sanders and Clinton, suggesting that they find the candidates similar, aren’t paying much attention to the race, or simply want some Democrat to make it to the White House in January.

Cruz and Kaisch, by contrast, have much larger groups of supporters “not too” or “not at all” enthusiastic about them — 35 and 51 percent, respectively.

The survey was conducted via cellphone and landline interviews March 21-23 with a random sample of 1,358 registered voters (635 Republicans and independents who lean Republican, and 610 Democrats and those who lean Democratic). Voters were over 18 and lived in all 50 states including the District of Columbia.

Photo: Democratic U.S. presidential candidates Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrive on stage ahead of the start of the PBS NewsHour Democratic presidential candidates debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, February 11, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Hauck