Fox News distorts its poll – are they liars or just really stupid?

Timothy Kincaid

May 16th, 2012

Fox News poll: Majority opposes gay marriage, doesn’t want constitutional amendment

That’s the headline.

Do you believe gays and lesbians should be:
A. allowed to get married
B. allowed a legal partnership similar to, but not called, marriage
C. should there be no legal recognition given to gay and lesbian relationships.

That’s the question.

37% – legally married
33% – legal partnership
25% – no recognition
5% – “We both love soup

That’s the response

I’ve looked at this question upside and downside. I even played it backwards in case Satan had a secret message that only Led Zeppelin fans could hear. But try as I might, I see no question about “do you oppose gay marriage”.

I prefer Haagen Dasz ice cream. I really do. In fact, I think it is by far the best ice cream readily available in your local market. But if I’m at your house and you are serving homemade blackberry pie and you offer a scoop of Dryer’s vanilla, I’ll say “yes”. Because while I do love me some Haagen Dasz, I do not oppose Dryer’s.

You see, I understand the difference between preference and opposition. But I guess that is a subtlety which is too confusing for Fox. Or, at least, I hope that they were being stupid and not going for intentional deceit. I vastly prefer idiot to liars.

But I do give them credit for getting the second part mostly right. And perhaps they may wish to look closely at what it says about the American majority (a view not easily evident in the perceptions of their talking heads):

Would you favor or oppose amending the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman?

29% – strongly favor
9% – somewhat favor
2% – depends
14% – somewhat oppose
40% – strongly oppose
7% – “we could talk or not talk forever… and still find things to not talk about

Considering that there are more people strongly opposed to discrimination that who favor it in any fashion, I don’t see Mitt pushing this too loudly in the coming months. Unless, of course, he didn’t notice how John McCain’s electoral transformation into a raving right-wing nut worked out for him.

As for their third question about why Obama evolved, well the choices were laughable. Really. I did laugh. (But they kinda were spot on.)

And finally, some other numbers Romney should pay attention to are:

37% of Republicans oppose amending the Constitution, 23% of them strongly. No age bracket or economic level supports this notion. It’s a loser idea supported only by a niche and hated by everyone else and it should be jettisoned. Of course he won’t do so.

57% of Republicans support relationship recognition, 13% of them marriage. Saying that you oppose civil unions puts you in the nutcase fringe within the party. Look around at who agrees with that. You’d never enter a business deal with them; they are loons.

Priya Lynn

May 16th, 2012

My vote is for liars.

Lucrece

May 16th, 2012

I have to disagree. The “I would support something that is not marriage” often tends to indicate that they would vote against marriage in my experience — for example, California. I’m highly doubtful they’d just stay out of it or vote for marriage equality if they were not given the option of marriage lite. The “have the rights but not the name” is a statement of wanting to withhold marriage.

Who cares, anyways? It’s a Fox poll — it’s got about as much sway as Rasmussen.

Priya Lynn

May 16th, 2012

Lucrece, I’ve seen similar polls and when given the choice between same sex marriage and no recognition whatsoever while some will then oppose full marriage a large percentage of those who support civil unions will support full marriage instead.

Lucrece

May 17th, 2012

Yeah, but many states that are not North Carolina filled with batshit crazy people are smart enough to just amend the constitution to ban marriage/civil unions and leave domestic partnerships open.

In states where the question just bands marriage+civil unions but leaves partnerships, I’d bet my left nut they would have no qualms voting for the bans.

And even then, I have my doubts about the level of care those people will show toward whether we are left out in the cold without recognition. Look at how many states ban any recognition with large majority votes — those people certainly showed a callous disregard for our well-being.

What’s some homosexuals’ hardships in the big picture of God’s word? They have their priorities, and gay people’s well-being is nowhere near the top of the list.

Richard Rush

May 17th, 2012

I loved this: “2% – depends.” I thought you made it up until I looked at the actual polling document. Ummmm . . . depends on what? Does it depend on whether they remembered to wear their Depends last night?

Eric in Oakland

May 17th, 2012

I believe the polls are probably accurate, but they only tell the opinion of the general public rather than likely voters. As we see time and time again, anti gays seem much more likely to go vote than people who favor equality.

Priya Lynn

May 17th, 2012

Lucrece, I agree the level of support varies considerably from state to state, but my point is that this poll
and the questions it asked is consistent with polls that only ask “Do you support marriage” and show about a 50% national support rate for same sex marriage.

TampaZeke

May 17th, 2012

I vote C; all of the above!

MCB

May 18th, 2012

By pure synchronicity I was reading these two items at the same time, and I thought this might be useful for discussion: http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201205170002

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