Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Coming on the heels of last week’s announcement that South Korean scientists had cloned a human embryo, the U.S. House is nearing a vote on expanding federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. President Bush has threatened to veto the legislation if it passes. Surveys last year by the Pew Research Center for the People […]
Summary of Findings Americans are critical of President Bush’s job performance in many policy areas, but negative opinions of his handling of the economy and Iraq are doing the most damage to his overall approval rating, which now stands at 43%. Just 35% approve of the president’s handling of the economy, down from 43% in […]
Summary of Findings As the Senate prepares for a showdown on the use of the filibuster against some of President Bush’s judicial nominees, the issue remains mostly off the public’s radar. But public opinion especially among the roughly one-third of the public who has paid at least fairly close attention to the issue […]
Part 1: Principal Findings Coming out of the 2004 election, the American political landscape decidedly favored the Republican Party. The GOP had extensive appeal among a disparate group of voters in the middle of the electorate, drew extraordinary loyalty from its own varied constituencies, and made some inroads among conservative Democrats. These advantages outweighed continued […]
Introduction and Summary Americans have ambivalent views about the appropriate role for government in curbing sex, violence and indecency in the entertainment media. They have doubts about the effectiveness of government action, and believe that public pressure in the form of complaints and boycotts is a better way of dealing with the problem. […]
Introduction Although former Vermont governor Howard Dean failed to win the Democratic presidential nomination, his campaign left a strong imprint on the political world. It assembled a network of over a half-million active supporters and contributors, raised over $20 million in mostly small donations online, and demonstrated the power of the internet as a networking […]
Given their numbers, their highly visible role in the 2004 campaign, and their generally strong commitment to political activity, the attitudes of Dean activists toward the Democratic Party will help shape the party’s future direction. The Dean activists are highly critical of the Democratic Party in a number of areas. But they are not ready […]
Why Dean? The war in Iraq was by far the most important issue that attracted Dean activists to the campaign. Two-thirds (66%) picked the war as one of the two most important issues in their decision to support Dean, far outpacing health care (at 34%). About a quarter (24%) cited fiscal responsibility as the most […]
Heavy News Consumers Among the most distinguishing characteristics of Dean activists is their intense interest in the news. Not only are they far more avid consumers of news than the general public but the sources they consult follow a substantially different pattern. Like many Americans, Dean activists pick the daily newspaper as their single most […]