Gallup: Public Little Concerned About Patriot Act

[kskiska]

Wants civil liberties respected, but feels Bush administration has not gone "too far" in restricting liberties

PRINCETON, NJ -- Attorney General John Ashcroft continues his tour of America this week, touting the merits of the 2001 anti-terrorism law known as the Patriot Act. A recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll suggests that even if he allowed all Americans to attend his presentations (which are by invitation only, and consist mostly of military and law-enforcement personnel), he would find a concerned, but mostly receptive audience. The poll shows that while a substantial majority of Americans say the government should not take actions in the war on terrorism that would violate their basic civil liberties, an even larger majority says the Bush administration has not done so.

The poll, conducted Aug. 25-26, finds 67% of Americans saying the government should not take steps to prevent terrorism if those steps would violate their basic civil liberties, while 29% say the government should take "all steps necessary" to prevent additional acts of terrorism in the United States, even if it means their basic civil liberties would be violated.

more…
http://www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr030909.asp

[Khephra]

1. The reason?

Most damn people have never heard of the Patriot Act.

Sometimes I've run into people who know the most obscure Bush facts, yet those same people have never heard of the Act. It's scary!

[baby_bear]

2. Not only that

The fact that most people don't have a clue how it tramples on their civil liberties (or might at any moment without notice) is that it is all done in secret, beyond the scrutiny of the public, the media, even the local police in most cases. The librarians may know, but they are forbidden to speak....

Of course, as you say, the main reason is that people aren't paying attention. But, it works because of secrecy and ignorance, in tandem.

Isn't it interesting that Ashcroft is on his Elmer Gantry-like circuit through the country, preaching to those who are already in the choir? Never a town meeting, oh no. And why not? Why is he such a coward that he can't confront the people of the country? It is always to "invited" audiences, same as Bush on his tours.

It is such a consistent trend in this administration. I hate it. The people be damned. Why don't they realize they are being damned?

s_m

[punpirate]

3. Someone asked recently...

... if Americans were the stupidest people on the planet. I don't think so--but, I do think they're horribly uninformed and misinformed.

This poll is a good indication of that (as is the continuing polling saying that the number of people who thought Iraq had something to do with 9/11 is increasing).

It continues to boggle my mind that in a country as media-saturated as this one, people simply don't know anything about their own government and its activities, and/or have been as thoroughly misinformed about it as they have.

It's belaboring the obvious, I know, but much of it can be traced to Murdoch's successes, and the apparent need for the rest of the news media to imitate his operation. The remainder of the problem is, no doubt, fear and corporate games.

It ought to be obvious that there _is_ something wrong with the PATRIOT Act if the Attorney General has to do an extended road show to defend it....

[benfranklin1776]

4. The poll is encouraging in one respect.

That is the strong trend in favor of protecting civil liberties. A commanding majority now oppose the government taking steps to combat terrorism that would trample basic civil liberties. That is very good. However the problem is a lack of understanding about what the (Un)Patriot Act does. Since the (Un)PATRIOT Act purports to abrogate much of the bill of rights it is an egregious trampling of civil liberties and hence a commanding majority should in theory be critical of the Act, but 48% think the Act is "about right." Thus more public education about the Act, and the Administration's failure to account for how they are using the act is in order, although the ACLU is to be commended for the fantastic job they have done thus far. The mainstream media needs to be prodded to critically report on what the Act does and how dangerous it truly is, particularly whenever John Boy will be teaming with Oral "Booby" Hatch this fall to further erode the Bill of Rights by seeking passage of the "Victory Act" which incorporates some of the provisons revealed in the internal Justice Department document leaked to the media discussing a proposed (Un)Patriot Act II.

[teryang]

5. I've been looking at a lot of epidemiology

studies lately and I can see two sources of huge selection bias and one major design flaw in this poll leading to a false conclusion:

1. Telephone survey method. The persons likely to be reached are those who of lesser social status and education levels. Most middle class white collar and higher social status persons such as professional Americans with advanced education levels cannot be reached directly by phone anymore. This would trend to a more conservative curve with lower educated responders.

2. Age. The younger the people surveyed, the more conservative response you are likely to get because life experience levels are low. This has been documented in past political science polls.

3. The question "has the government gone too far" is meaningless. The public has no way of knowing this. This is not a measureable phenomenon. The actions carried out under the auspices of the Patriot Act are by their nature state security secrets. Revealing them is a crime. Therefore to say that a larger majority is in favor of the way the Patriot Act is carried out than the huge majority which believes that the government should not take steps infringe on civil rights is a meaningless and false comparison.

4. Lastly, the bias of the analysis of the poll is so great that the conclusion is technically incorrect. More persons are by far in favor of civil liberties 67 percent than satisfied with the execution of the act 55 percent. Those critical of the execution of the Act from both sides of the spectrum amount to 40 percent. However, the poll taker is combining the 55 percent with the 21 percent who say the act hasn't gone far enough. It is striking that the most dubious part of the poll based upon virtually totally uniformed responders has a bell shaped curve response. In any case as I have pointed out above, the people polled have no idea what the execution of the Patriot Act has been, so they are being polled on a guess rather than anything close to a meaningful opinion.

[alphafemale]

6. Is this related to the 69% that can't name a single Dem Candidate?

On edit:
(And the 69% that thinks Iraq is linked to 9/11?)

Bullshit, meaningless poll.

Only proves media success at keeping people ignorant.

:grr: :nuke: :grr:

[sandnsea]

7. Civil liberties - keeping my gun?

If Bush hasn't violated civil liberties, then it's simply not the same liberties these people are referring to. I bet if the questions were more specific, you'd get much more interesting answers.

[Democat]

8. In other more important news, Arnold runs for governor with movie quotes

The U.S. media would much rather report on Lacy Peterson and Arnold's joke candidacy than tell the truth about what Bush and Ashcroft are doing to the Constitution.

Kobe rape allegations are more important than Bush raping America.