Pew Poll: Public and 'Occupy Wall Street' Movement in Synch on Key Issues

[pampango]

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2118/occupy-wall-street-protests

The American public is beginning to take notice of the "Occupy movement." Polling on the subject of the protests and attitudes toward Wall Street suggest that the public may respond positively to the goals of the Occupy movement, but not necessarily its tactics.

Read an analysis in the New York Times by Pew Research president Andrew Kohut that is part of a discussion on the "Psychology of Occupy Wall Street."



From Andrew Kohut's New York Times article linked above:

The American public is beginning to take notice of the "Occupy movement." The Pew Research Center's polling this week finds a growing number of people paying attention to news about the movement. And the Gallup Poll found that among the minority of its respondents who are paying very close attention to the story, there is significantly more approval than disapproval of the Occupy movement's goals.

This may well be an indicator of how a broader slice of the public comes to view the movement, given the climate of opinion about the issues being raised. Three themes in the data suggest that the public may respond positively to the goals of the Occupy movement, but not necessarily its tactics.

First, fundamental views about economic inequality are long standing. Over the past two decades we have found a very large majority of respondents agreeing with the statement that "this is a country in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." And, since the late 1980s, a growing number of citizens have begun to see the U.S. as a nation divided into two groups: the “haves” and the “have nots.”

Secondly, the public has come to see government policies as catering to the rich and powerful. A forthcoming Pew Research Center report will show large majorities saying that while the government does not do enough for both the middle class and poor people, two in three think it does too much for the wealthy. Unlike the Republican Party, President Obama is not seen by most as catering to the rich. However, just 29 percent of respondents think the president is doing more to help the "have nots" than to help the "haves.”

The third factor is of course the economic climate. Anxiety about economic conditions, and jobs in particular, puts the whole question of fairness front and center for the average American. The public expressed strong disapproval of bank bailouts and auto bailouts, as well as coming to the aid of home owners who took on mortgages they could not afford.

[Scuba]

1. WTF is a "new coalition dem"?

[Historic NY]

5. These folks..........

http://ndc.crowley.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62&Itemid=54

[Scuba]

6. Huh. Their website is pretty vanilla. Ron Kind being on the leadership committee...

...is a good sign.


At least they're not blue dogs.

[EFerrari]

2. OWS IS the public.

[Warpy]

3. This is the true political center!

Self styled centrists are halfway between Democratic conservatives and Republican lunatics. They have nothing to do with the political center beyond the theft of the name.

No politician who disagrees with these positions is a true centrist.

I just wish so many people here and elsewhere didn't buy the meme that they are.

[msongs]

4. OWS needs to keep away from Obama and congress, the rightist government nt