I’ve been doing a fair bit of re-thinking about elections and labels we put on other people – the operative word being ‘other.’ Labels floated to the top of my thoughts after another vitriolic name calling dust up that came to light on political blogs in the US this weekend between Jeff Goldstein and Professor Deborah Frisch. (see post below)
AlterNet looks at a 2005Â Harris poll that asked people in the USÂ what the following terms meant: liberal, conservative, left, right. I suspect if it was done in 2006, the terms would be even more muddied.
I’m glad the Harris people never called me for this survey, because I would have had to answer “not sure” to every question. Even after working as a political reporter for many years, I still have absolutely no idea what the American versions of left and right mean – what they mean in an ideological sense, that is. It’s hard not to be confused when we call a saber-rattling free trader like John Kerry far left, while a man who keeps a portrait of Lenin on his wall, like Grover Norquist, is considered the very definition of a right-winger.
Liberal/left.
According to the survey, 37 percent of Americans think liberals oppose gun control, or else they are not sure if liberals oppose gun control.
Conservative/right.
Likewise, 27 percent of respondents thought a right-winger was someone who supported affirmative action.
Pairing the words led to even more confusion.
In both cases, respondents were roughly 10 percent more clueless about left-wingers and right-wingers than they were about liberals and conservatives.
The survey asked respondents to define the terms on seven political issues: abortion rights, gun control, cutting taxes, gay rights, same-sex marriage, affirmative action and moral values.
78 percent of respondents believe conservatives support moral values, while only 40 percent said the same about left-wingers. In fact, 29 percent said they believed left-wingers actually opposed moral values.
Since the terms are used as vindictives and are used to merely vilify perceived political opponents, I think the only thing I can do in response as a none US political blogger is ask what someone from the US means when they attempt to paste the labels on me if I’m in a blog discussion with them.
And I think the only thing we can do is keep asking each individual we are talking with, every time. I also think it is wise given the utter confusion to be clear about what I understand terms to be. Or perhaps it would be wiser still, given the goings on in US punditry, to not use them at all.
Harris Poll 2005: Political labels
via: Jordon Cooper
