emphasis on ‘kind of’.
more interesting than funny.
kind of interesting.
ok, more than ‘kind of’ interesting.
actually interesting.
here goes.
a recent gallup poll asked americans how likely they would be to vote for a qualified
presidential candidate if they were black, latino, gay, female, etc.
here are the results:
Black 94%
Jewish 92%
A woman 88%
Hispanic 87%
Mormon 72%
Married for third time 67%
72 years of age 57%
A homosexual 55%
An atheist 45%
so, basically, 94% of americans would happily vote for a black candidate for president, but only 45% of americans would vote for an atheist.
the reason this is kind of funny is that the 3 leading gop candidates are:
a-a mormon(mitt romney, 72% of americans would vote for a mormon)
b-72 years old(john mccain, 57% of americans would vote for someone 72 years old)
c-twice divorced(rudy giulianni, 67% of americans would vote for someone who was on their 3rd wife)
other variables obviously come into play, but it’s still interesting to see what americans are purportedly comfortable with.
the poll is encouraging in that it seems to show that americans are not as racist as widely believed.
the poll is discouraging in that we seem to live in a country of homophobes.
ok, that’s it. nothing too earth-shaking, just an interesting poll about americans and what they’re willing to tell a complete stranger who calls them at home during dinner-time.
one could make the case, based on supposition, that what the poll really reveals is the extent to which americans are comfortable sharing their biases and prejudices with strangers on the phone.
americans might be deeply racist, but maybe they’re ashamed to admit their racism to the nice people from gallup.
in most parts of america being prejudiced towards gays and atheists doesn’t carry the same social stigma as racism and anti-semitism.
that might explain, to an extent, the poll numbers.
i’m such a nerd, i really like reading polls.
zogby’s are the most fun, especially when you really get into the nuanced nuts -n- bolts of the responses.
waxing enthusiastic about the nuts and bolts of political polling?
wait, when did i stop being cool?
oh, that’s right, to paraphrase a simpsons clip show: ‘i was never cool’.
i really should think about going to rockstar camp so i can learn how to be cool and esoteric and vague.
then i could start writing esoteric blogs.
that would be fun.
like:
“the moon stole the mice. again.
like the ghosts of aldous huxley and rimbaud, playing skee-ball at the midway of america.
i guess it’s better to put it all on red.
be good, y’all.”
see, that’s what i need to start doing.
learning how to be vague and esoteric.
cool people are vague and esoteric.
the wolverine is in the cistern, drunk on the rhapsodic butter of elvis chomsky.
like that, right?
i need a vague and esoteric make-over.
perhaps that would be a good reality tv show for pbs.
moby