One survey was looking for real responses America’s current economic situation, the other was for spouting their party’s bizarre philosophy. Guess which was which? Totally by coincidence, I just received two congressional survey forms, both on the same day. Since I was once, many years ago, registered as a Republican, I still get various requests for donations and receive questionnaires from both the Democrats and the GOP. After going through both surveys, it absolutely confirmed and gave me even more ammunition as to why I and so many previous “Moderate Republicans” eventually left the so called “new conservatives” to become either Independents, Libertarians or Democrats. The reason I came to that opinion can be easily demonstrated by looking at how the two parties structured their survey questions. As I had expected, many of the Republican questions left me with even more questions, due to the bizarre structure and assumptions of the GOP survey questions. In addition, the GOP survey was virtually a 16 question parody version of the old, “When did you stop beating your wife?” type of “Karl Rovian” survey questions. Here are some examples: Republican Survey Questions:

Question 1: “Do you support the Democrats efforts to create a massive new federal government bureaucracy that would be run by unionized employees and would have complete control of your health care costs and choices?” Wow! In order to answer “no” to this question, I would have to know or assume the following: 1. That the Democrats are trying to create a massive government bureaucracy, even more so than that of the previous Bush Administration which was a tremendous expansion of the US government bureaucracy. 2. That the government workers would absolutely all be unionized. 3. I guess I am also supposed to dislike or distrust any workers that belong to a Union. 4. That the bureaucracy, not myself, would have total control over all of the possible health care choices. 5. That the health care costs from the new public organization were guaranteed to be higher than the current private insurance providers. (Of course, the questionnaire provided no information to support or refute any of these assumptions.) Question 2: “Do you support maintaining anti-terrorism laws that give law enforcement and intelligence agencies the far-reaching powers to track, detain and prosecute terrorists and their accomplices?” Once again, to say “yes”, I need to know or assume and agree that: 1. This would apply across-the-board to the local Police and the CIA / FBI / NSA. 2. That I would agree to maintain the previous Bush laws that allowed warrantless wiretapping….? 3. That it would allow them to detain and interrogate anyone such as was done at the Guantanamo Detention Center. 4. That they would prosecute everyone without the benefit of Habeas Corpus, so anyone, myself included, would be declared a terrorist if they just said I was a terrorist? Question 3: “Do you believe that this nation’s Founding Fathers intended for the federal government to micro-manage state and local functions such as setting education standards, health care, child care and unemployment assistance?” First, what do they actually mean by: “micro-manage”? And in order to say “yes or no” to this one, since during the founding of this nation there were no government funded; public schools, programs for health and child care or unemployment insurance, we would need to be clairvoyant as to what the Founding Fathers would actually want. However, based on my knowledge of history and some of the recorded speeches and statements from those constitutional founders such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, if given the opportunity to provide these benefits for the American public, I believe they would probably have approved some of them, at least to some level. But it is absurd to use this as a political survey question in 2009….? Question 4: “Do you agree with Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi’s efforts to impose massive tax hikes on the American people?” For a “no” on this one, I must agree that: 1. First, I would have to assume that the GOP wants to show virtually no respect for either the individuals or their office as they do not refer to them as: “President Barack Obama” or “House Speaker - Nancy Pelosi”. 2. I must also assume that the tax hikes they refer to are going to apply to all Americans. How would I know that as a fact from the question? (And as a point of fact, the tax increases will not be for everyone. They are only for the top wealthiest 1% of Americans.) Question 5: “Do you believe that the federal government should maintain a permanent ownership stake in large American banks?” For a “no” on this one, I must assume: 1. First, that the federal government actually “has” real ownership in some large US banks. In fact, they do not have that role on anything more than on the current “bail-out” program. (And the government position is not to manage the banks, its only for overseeing the bail-out money.) When the bail-out money is repaid, the US government goes away. 2.

Just as with FOX News, these are the types of bogus questions and assumptions that they continue to try to press on the American public. The only options that were offered in answering all of their survey questions were: Yes, No or Undecided. There were no “Other” alternatives. And over half of the sixteen GOP questions were written in such a way as to almost say, “If you agree or disagree on the wrong side of these questions, you are a traitor and don’t deserve to be an American or in the Republican party.” On the other side of the issue, when reviewing the Democratic Survey, there was not one question structured such as those in the GOP survey. Here are some examples of the Democrat’s survey questions: Democratic Party Question 1: “Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the ability of President Obama and the Democrats in Congress to revitalize America’s economy?” The answer options were: Very Optimistic, Optimistic, Not very Optimistic, Pessimistic. Question 2: “What do you think is the most important economic issue facing America? The answer options were: Inflation, Jobs, Housing/Foreclosures, Strength of Banks, Healthcare for every American, Other____ Question 3: “How would you rate your own personal financial situation?” The answer options were: Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor Question 4: “A year from now, do you expect that economic conditions in the country will be better than today?” The answer options were: Better, Worse, About the same Obviously, the Democrats wanted real responses from their American constituents. That is, as compared to the GOP wanting trumped up, bogus support for their off-the-wall Republican “talking points”.

Looking back, it just continued to demonstrate why more and more most Americans don’t want to admit that they are members of the Republican Party. It also shows how they have no respect for the intelligence of the average American. It is a perfect example of why the GOP and FOX News are becoming more and more irrelevant, yet still dangerous to the American democratic process. These surveys show some excellent examples of how the two parties regard, or in the GOP’s situation, disregard the real opinions of the average American citizen.

Copyright G.Ater 2009 Follow me on Twitter: gater01