Why Is 2008 Ripe For A Third Party Run?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in PollsPolls aren’t always right, but these numbers are so low I have to believe that people will be begging for somebody or something to get them excited about being an American voter again.
NEW YORK What’s going on? Gallup reports today a sudden plunge in its regular “satisfaction” index. Only 25% of Americans now say they satisfied with the state of their country — down 8% in just one month — and one of the lowest ever measured.“The current 25% satisfaction level is very low by historical standards,” Gallup explained. “Since Gallup first asked this question in 1979, the average percentage of Americans saying they are satisfied with conditions in the country is 43%.” [...]
The latest poll finds 45% of Republicans saying they are satisfied, compared with only 12% of Democrats. Over the past month, satisfaction fell more among Democrats, suggesting that some of them may be souring on their party’s actions or inactions in Congress.
Are you satisfied?
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 and is filed under Polls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 17th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
[...] Justin asks the question “Are you satisfied?”, linking to polls that may or not indicate an electoral base which can serve as a foundation for a third party effort. The question resonates for me, and was one I tried to answer in an older but relevant post: [...]
May 17th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
I don’t know how you draw the conclusion that the answer to “are you satisfied” indicates the respondents want more politics and more politicians??
The question itself is meaningless unless you ask why they are unsatisfied. Maybe they are unsatisfied with having to put up with the constant politics by 20 wanna-bes while we are losing three kids and $280 million a day in a country half-way-round the world where we have nothing to win.
And if that’s so, how does that indicate they want a guy like multi-billionaire Bloomberg to buy his way into the oval office?? Bloomberg is not “the answer” anymore than Ross Perot was “the answer”.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
But this is just one reason why people aren’t satisfied. Take this away, and I bet people would still feel like things need to change. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s my guess about the collective mood in the aftermath of our recent hyper-partisan political history.
As far as Bloomberg goes, the only way for a person to make it to the Oval Office free from the trappings of our traditional give/take campaign finance system is to be super wealthy. Maybe it’ll change in the future, but that’s our reality in the here and now. And Bloomberg can spend a bunch of his own money and devise a political philosophy free from the traditional two party trappings.
I guess my question then is…what’s your solution?
May 18th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I can’t give a solution to “are you satisfied” unless know why the respondents are not satisfied. Maybe the respondents think there is too much war, OR, maybe the respondents think there is NOT ENOUGH war. Should I just randomly “do something” without first understanding what need to be done??
“Nero, Rome is on fire!!”
“Oh that’s terrible!! Let me put out the flames by playing my fiddle!!”