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Collection: Polling

Sightline’s communications strategy team looks at the latest polling data and political messaging for best practices, worst practices, and lessons for Northwest policy champions.

Weekend Reading 11-18-11

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Clark:

Reusable bag humor.

Graphs: It’s taking longer and longer to replace jobs after a recession.

The world’s sexiest programmable thermostat.

AHH! Maybe neutrinos CAN move faster than light.

Anna:

Here’s polling that shows—yet again—that American values differ from those of Western Europeans. Most notably, and no big surprise, at the same time we’re more religious, and more likely to think our country is superior (49% of us), we’re more individualistic and are less supportive of a strong safety net than are folks in Britain, France, Germany and Spain.

I like his novels; now I like Jonathan Franzen even better, knowing he’s a greenie. Check this Grist interview.

Here’s a valiant attempt to recast the 99 percent as middle Americans, not “animals,” “freaks,” “anarchists,” and “stinky hippies”—the side of this phenomenon that most of the mainstream media isn’t telling. (Compare this especially to this Salon writer’s account of bravely watching 2 days of Fox News coverage to see how they are portraying OWS. Spoiler: they mostly only say that the occupation is “gross.”)

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Talking Climate Change

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The water cooler talk today for Climate Nerds (and the Climate Coolsters too) is all about Al Gore’s Rolling Stone critique of President Obama’s failure to lead on climate change issues. Here’s the money quote on the singular agenda-setting power of the American president:

Yet without presidential leadership that focuses intensely on making the public aware of the reality we face, nothing will change. The real power of any president, as Richard Neustadt wrote, is “the power to persuade.” Yet President Obama has never presented to the American people the magnitude of the climate crisis. He has simply not made the case for action. He has not defended the science against the ongoing, withering and dishonest attacks. Nor has he provided a presidential venue for the scientific community — including our own National Academy — to bring the reality of the science before the public.

The point is that the public needs strong leadership on global warming. Otherwise we’re left confused and preoccupied with other pressing concerns. But it also brings up a long-standing question about whether more information is what Americans really actually need to get on board with climate action—in word and in deed.

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To Drill or Not to Drill is Not the *Only* Question, II

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fracking oil gas depreciation

A while back I wrote about how public opinion data are informed in great part by how survey questions are framed. Nothing shocking there. I used the American public’s increasing support for offshore drilling as an example. It turned out that when poll questions offered a choice between drilling and more investment in alternative energy, alternative energy came out ahead—by a mile.

But lots of polls don’t give respondents a full range of options, or alternatively, only some of the research findings are reported, so it winds up looking like drilling is all they want (because that’s all anyone asked them about or that’s the “juicy” headline). The pitfall is that the rosy numbers for drilling can be cherry-picked by the “Drill, Baby, Drill” folks lurking at the gates of ANWR.

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Taxes Are Patriotic

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American Flag courtesy Click at MorgueFileI filed my taxes a long time ago (just one of the many benefits of being married to someone far, far more organized than I am). So, I haven’t been thinking about my own taxes much this week—except to hope for a refund and follow President Obama’s road-show about his budget (He did Jay Leno, 60 Minutes, two nationally-televised town hall meetings, and a prime-time news conference—but I caught most of it via Jon Stewart).

But the best thing I’ve seen about taxes all week is a bunch of millionaires telling it like it is, saying that paying taxes is patriotic.

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Weekend Reading 3/11/11

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From Alan:

Feebates in France have performed exceptionally well, according to Market Watch. It’s more than a decade since any Cascadian jurisdication (British Columbia) considered a similar proposal. Is it time?

The blog Plurale Tantum unveiled a fascinating examination of why people of color and bicycle advocacy don’t seem to go together. Lots to think about—and do—to build a sustainability movement that matches Cascadia’s shifting demographic profile.

WaPo’s Ezra Klein articulates what’s become my growing concern about the brokenness of the governing bodies with jurisdiction in Cascadia:

“We spend too much time debating political events and the choices leaders make and not enough time debating the structure of political institutions and the impersonal economic and systemic forces that drive the choices leaders make.”

“It’s the institutions, stupid,’ is the right way to understand most of what happens in American politics, but it’s not the way people want to understand American politics, so it’s often ignored.”

I read the 1994 article “It’s the Institutions, Stupid,” to which Klein referred. It’s a fascinating review of the shifting institutional barriers to comprehensive reforms in the American republic. The paper is a study of health care reform, but the same barriers halted comprehensive climate policy last year.

Finally, I’m enamored by 350.org’s new campaign to make clear that the US Chamber of Commerce, whatever else it is, is not the legitimate voice of business in America. More than 1,000 businesses signed a statement last week declaring that the US Chamber does not speak for them on climate. Many of those businesses are in Cascadia. I expect this number to keep rising rapidly.

From Clark:

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Canadians Believe in Climate Change!…and Government!?

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A report detailing Canadian and US public opinion on climate change and based on the results of two national surveys was released Wednesday by the Public Policy Forum and Sustainable Prosperity (full report here, pdf).

The big takeaways:

  • Far more Canadians than Americans believe climate change is real (80 percent vs. 58 percent).
  • Canadians, unlike their US counterparts, see clear government responsibility in addressing climate change (65 percent vs. 43 percent).
  • And unlike the bulk of Americans, Canadians are willing to pay for global warming solutions (twice as many Canadians as Americans support both a cap-and-trade system for industry and the idea of paying a carbon tax of up to $50 a month).

Support for Climate Policies in the US and Canada—and Willingness to Pay


Note: Support levels represent the percentage of respondents who indicated that they either “strongly supported” or “somewhat supported” the policy option.

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Poll: Northwest Takes to the Wind (Mill)

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Here’s a quick note on recent polling about wind energy among Northwest voters.

We’ve all heard loud opposition to wind farms—the most ardent critics are usually neighbors who dislike the idea of seeing wind turbines out their windows, but overall, public opinion in the Northwest is looking pretty good for wind energy development.

That’s right. A recent public radio poll of voters in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, found broad support for wind energy among both urban and rural Northwest residents—even if the turbines would be visible from their homes.

Of course, anyone who answered in the hypothetical could go the other way if a wind farm was proposed that would actually be visible from their home!

For my part, I hope these findings signal an emerging clean-energy aesthetic, where clean energy technologies look more and more beautiful to us because they represent good stuff: progress, health, and economic strength.

Public Radio Poll Chart Wind Energy

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