Quote:
Originally Posted by aceventura3
On every issue you will see base level support of an issue and you will see trends or patterns. There is a tolerance in the middle and with new information there are shifts at the "grassroots" level that will move the course of political action in this country. For example Democrats were out of touch with the underlying "grass roots" conservative views of the country leading into the 2010 elections. Obama has continued to show he is out of touch and is out of touch on the energy issue. At the "grassroots" level conservative people do not want electric cars and windmills, we want oil. smart politician respond to "grassroots" issues and concerns.
|
You think conservative support for offshore drilling can't be traced back to neoconservative propaganda? Again, follow the money. Long-time Washington insider and neoconservative Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, known right now best for being one of the biggest hands behind the Tea Party, and the US Chamber of Commerce
worked directly with BP in attempting to build astroturf support for offshore drilling. I'm sorry, but if you think that support for offshore drilling is grassroots, I've got a bridge to sell you. That leads to nowhere.
Moreover, the poll that said 57% of Americans favor offshore drilling
was done by Rasmussen, which has been known to poll more in favor of conservative points compared to other pollsters. The same poll done at the same time by Virginia Commonwealth University, which is nonpartisan, actually revealed that
51% of Americans are opposed to offshore drilling. I'll grant you that's not a wide margin, but considering there are no corporate funded propaganda machines pushing to end drilling, it's an important number.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aceventura3
I talk about the general views held by individuals in the country. Only small percentages of people join organizations, very few post on boards or do blogs, very few call talk radio, no one media outlet or personality dominates - mostly we are talking about people who simply try to make the most of their day to day lives.
|
Those people want to
tax the rich to balance the budget. Boot-strapy folk wantin' to make ends meet and work hard to do right by their families want that rich to pay their fair share, which goes against arguably the central issue of modern conservatism. This belief can't be traced back to a conservative or liberal or libertarian think tank because most of them are funded by millionaires. This is a real life, actual grassroots belief.