Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Both Republicans and Democrats are hypocritical

Link here to story.  From 75% support to 52% for Republicans.  From 37% to 64% for Democrats.

This graphic says it all, however:



Edit - actual questions:



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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 13, 2013 at 4:21 PM

    Apples and oranges professor.

    These were two totally different questions.

    In 2006 the question asked if it is acceptable for the NSA to investigate “people suspected of involvement with terrorism by secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails between some people in the United States and other countries, without first getting court approval to do so.”

    In 2013, they ask if it acceptable that the NSA “has been getting secret court orders to track telephone calls of millions of Americans in an effort to investigate terrorism.”

    In 2006 75% of Republicans thought it was acceptable for the NSA to spy on Americans *without* a court order.

    In 2013 only 52% of Republicans agreed that it was acceptable to spy on Americans after getting approval from a secret court.

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  2. Matthew RousuJune 13, 2013 at 4:37 PM

    The questions were worded differently. I agree with you in one respect: if you wanted a perfect test, the questions should have been worded identically.

    I disagree that the 2013 question wording implies it should be more acceptable. The word "millions" is in the second question, not the first. One could reasonably argue the 2nd question is worded more harshly.

    One could also argue that 5 years after 9/11, more people were willing to trade off some privacy rights for safety than today. Both of those points would make Republicans look less hypocritical.

    That being said, I think both sides are hypocritical here.

    (E.g., in 2000, when Al Gore was running, the fact that he went to Vietnam and Bush didn't made Democrats crow and Republicans say it didn't matter. In 2008, when reversed, you heard the opposite.)

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