Sorry, Single-Issue Voters, It’s Not Just About Abortion
A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows the abortion issue doesn’t affect how the country sees the president, and there is no difference between practicing Catholics and those who don’t attend church.
Sixty-two percent of Americans polled approve of Obama’s performance, and 35 percent do not approve. Among Catholics, the poll suggests 65 percent have a positive view of the job the president is doing, and 33 percent do not. The sampling error on that question is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the general population, and plus or minus 6.5 percentage points for Catholics.
And much as some single-issue voters feel there is nothing more important than the abortion issue, it has no affect on Obama’s popularity.
Does the president’s position in favor of abortion rights have an impact on the public’s perception of him? More than half the country says no. Fifty-seven percent of Americans say the president’s position has no effect on their view of him. Twenty-seven percent say it makes them feel less favorably about him, and 14 percent say it makes them feel more positively about him.
I don’t think the single issue voter is a very common phenomenon in the real world. Sure everybody has issues that are more important to them then others but come on. I know I can not think of a single candidate ever that I agreed with on everything.
EricG Reply:
May 18th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
“I don’t think the single issue voter is a very common phenomenon in the real world.”
Not true, as far as I see it. Certain people are convinced they are ‘informed’ and ‘politically active’ when in fact they only focus on one specific agenda and do not try to explain their whole position … because they don’t have one.
May 18th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
ALAN, is everything about abortion to you? Just kidding…I had to. :)
But for those who feel that abortion is a transcendent moral issue on par with slavery, shouldn’t it be a very, very important issue?
flap Reply:
May 18th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I’m in that 27%: if Obama were entirely against abortion then I’d be much more behind him. I can’t say I’d really consider being a Democrat but I’d be much closer.
EricG Reply:
May 18th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
“I can’t say I’d really consider being a Democrat”
That’s a shame. There are a rare few Republicans that I might vote for. There’s Ron Paul; even though he is a libertarian.
But I don’t think it is wise to have our politics be like this in America.
There is no such thing as ‘party loyalty’ unless you just want to be Republican no matter what that means.
If Republicans can run someone who is not a partisan lunatic and a backwards-logic toward the truth of conservative values.
If not for my rampant social progressive nature I would probably be a young Republican trying to reclaim the roots or perhaps a libertarian.
Thus they call me ‘moderate.’
It’s all about what we are talking about.
GuidoVanHorn Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 3:08 am
call ericg a moderate…then spit milk out of your nose.
Daddio Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 8:27 am
You are nowhere near a moderate Eric. Your post are ringing out that you are a far left wing liberal. No moderate in you. Sorry.
May 18th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Pres. Obama’s stance on abortion was only one of a multitude things that I considered. I am more apt to be pro-life. Even then, I get very leery of Republicans and others who’d use this get my vote. Gee, what are they seeking to hide amidst the smoke and mirrors?
If anything, the theatrics from talk radio helped me to get to know the candidates better. That is, I took a more careful look at their stances via sites like On The Issues and other sites.
EricG Reply:
May 18th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
It sounds like you weighed the issues and came to your own conclusion, Barry. That’s something I respect. No matter what side of a debate you’re on if you look at the other side and carefully considered your position then I have the utmost respect for you.
If you make broad statements like:
“Abortion is murder.”
And have no explanation beyond this then I often just check out. Why listen to those who care nothing for this country and the democratic process?
michael Reply:
May 18th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
“Even then, I get very leery of Republicans and others who’d use this get my vote. Gee, what are they seeking to hide amidst the smoke and mirrors?”
Great point. I think a lot of Republicans try to use this issue as bait for folks like you and me, when we might disagree with them the other 90% of the time, with their wars, demands that people with no boots “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps” and incredibly destructive environmental laws.
May 18th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
News flash to conservatives … the nation is more concerned about wars, the economy and the rule of law than they are with your social agenda.
JaredfromTexas Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 4:43 am
little ERIC,
don’t you mean your social agenda…it is the left-wing that’s pushing gay marriage and abortion…correct?
TDro319 Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
“don’t you mean your social agenda…it is the left-wing that’s pushing gay marriage and abortion…correct?”
I’d sooner push the liberal agenda of gay marriage and abortion than the conservative agenda of intolerance, war, killing machines and death.
trees are people too Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
TDro, abortion involves killing machines and death.
It also involves a practitioner, a specialist in the art of killing…..
JaredfromTexas Reply:
May 20th, 2009 at 2:45 am
TDRO,
than the conservative agenda of intolerance, war, killing machines and death.
snicker….yeah…this explains conservatism alright…intolerance – seems as though “intolerance” is shared by all…
conservatives don’t want gay marriage…while liberals are intolerant of another person’s opinion on this subject.
Nobody wants war…you can get off this “all conservatives want war” kick…it’s starting to get old…
killing machines – oh…you must mean the kind that has kept our great country safe for 200+ years – go hug a tree
death – like abortion, right?
TDro319 Reply:
May 20th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
“Nobody wants war…you can get off this “all conservatives want war” kick…it’s starting to get old…”
Sorry, Bud, but all conservatives/republican (with the exception of one) voted in favor of invading Iraq.
“killing machines – oh…you must mean the kind that has kept our great country safe for 200+ years – go hug a tree”
Yeah you know, the killing machines that you feel you need to have to keep the bad guys at bay (until it gets stolen and used to kill someone innocent bystander). Go hug a tree.
death – like abortion, right?”
No, actually I’m talking about people who have already been born. See, I believe that living breathing people should be saved. I don’t believe in the conservative mantra, “Save the fetus. Kill the child”.
“
JaredfromTexas Reply:
May 20th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
TDRO,
and so did the majority of Democrats…so, all Democrats want war (with the exception of the handful that didn’t vote for the war).
Am I right? Thought so…
until it gets stolen and used to kill someone innocent bystander
Examples, please…other than your personal opinion.
See, I believe that living breathing people should be saved. I don’t believe in the conservative mantra, “Save the fetus. Kill the child”.
No, this is more of your liberal delusion…the conservative mantra is “save everyone”. No one wants to go to war…conservative or liberal…demonizing the military men and women as “child killers” is disingenuous and ignorant.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
I believe you can be pro life, but pro choice. To be against choice is to be anti choice, not “pro” anything. And that, may just be the position of many Americans in this poll. For me, I think abortion is a sad and painful result of our inability to educate and support safe sex without impregnation for those who don’t want children. I know of very few women who gleefully dance their way to having an abortion. In the overwhelming majority of women that I know who have had abortions, it was a choice that they wished they didn’t have to make, and a decision that they reluctantly, and with great pain, carried out for their own reasons. It is a choice, but not a happy one. For some, who want to take that opportunity to make a choice away, it is totally inappropriate for them to refer to their movement as “pro life”. So, I believe a vast number of people are pro choice, but anti abortion, but finally….pro life.
GuidoVanHorn Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 3:11 am
as long as we refuse to give the fathers any say in the matter calling their movement pro-choice is “totally inappropriate.”
Sarah Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Guido, most often, the fathers don’t give a good rat’s ass, and even if they did, there are plenty of fathers who talk a good game, then bug out when child-rearing gets messy.
This is where PromiseKeepers rang hollow. It was nothing more than preaching to the choir, making pretty good men better, and in many ways, undermining the role of women by requiring them to become single mothers.
If they’d really wanted to make a difference, the seminars would’ve reached out to the men in gang-banging, barrio and redneck communities, men who leave a wake of illegitimate children they have no intention of fathering.
GuidoVanHorn Reply:
May 20th, 2009 at 2:34 am
lot’s of mother’s don’t give a rat’s ass either…but it doesn’t excuse the indiscriminate killing of the fetus.
I’ve never heard of the PromiseKeepers, but anyone who tries to help men become better fathers is probably a decent organization to have around.
I don’t like to rank all the reasons where our society has the greatest deficiencies, but Fatherless America has to rank in the top 2 or 3 issues, if not number 1.
We should hold father’s more responsible, absolutely.
But simply because there are a lot of father’s that don’t reach their potential and are flaky it doesn’t mean that it is still not their child.
It’s the simple hypocrisy of calling it a “choice” when the “choice” of one of the parents has no legal consequence or standing.
There are many reasons and nuances regarding the support of abortion, but one underlying reason that gets no play is the insiduous stance of the feminist movement that wrongly asserts that women don’t need men and children don’t need fathers. It’s subtle and it’s not overtly spoken, but that underlying hostility is there.
Sarah Reply:
May 20th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Guido, I think I can agree with you on almost every point above, except for this one:
one underlying reason that gets no play is the insiduous stance of the feminist movement that wrongly asserts that women don’t need men and children don’t need fathers. It’s subtle and it’s not overtly spoken, but that underlying hostility is there.
I would agree to a small extent that there’s a faction of feminists who are man-haters (just as there’s a faction of PromiseKeepers who are misogynist).
I think their number is small though.
Hostility? Perhaps it’s a which-came-first,-the-chicken-or-the-egg question.
Are feminists insisting that children don’t need fathers, because they truly believe that a single mom is all that’s needed and so men are given a free pass from parental responsibility?
Or are feminists insisting that children don’t need fathers, because — guess what? — the fathers have already bugged out of their parental responsibility?
It’s more the latter than the former, I strongly suspect.
GuidoVanHorn Reply:
May 21st, 2009 at 4:58 am
We could debate the chicken and the egg…but there is definitely a hostility out there amongst the feminist movement…isn’t that the whole point of the feminist movement?
Look at the flack that Dan Quayle got over his comments over a fictional character.
The little understood part is that he was right. I was an avid watcher of Murphy Brown and the show that season was a giant F-you to fathers. It wasn’t a case of her getting pregnant and the father not being around. She got pregnant and didnt’ want the father around, choosing to raise the child her self as a single mother.
I don’t demonize single mothers in general, as way too many of them are single parents out of necessity, not choice (although I’d like to point out that even a larger section of those that didn’t want to be single parents could have avoided the situation through better decision making before the fact)
but there is a growing section of feminists or otherwise delusional mothers (like octomom) who think in completely selfish terms. “I want a child so I am going to have one. I don’t have a husband or even a man, but that’s ok I can get a sperm donor. ”
This small section of single mothers are the most abhorrent to me. They may be fine mothers and decent people, but they have purposefully handicapped themselves and their child.
—
This is kind of fading now, but there was a stretch for a while that sitcoms and other tv shows were blatantly misandronistic. shows like According to Jim, King of Queens, The Simpsons, Still Standing etc… that portray the main male characters as incompetent, slow witted,ugly, fat, stupid and otherwise flawed men, and the women were smart, thin, beautiful, or were otherwise the good parents/employee/responsible citizens.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoy all of those shows and they are funny, but it portrays men in a negative light.
We need to be teaching our young boys to be responsible Men, and glorifying men as stupid and women as responsible as the norm is a damaging message.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:50 am
So cons, how did that abortion thingy work out for ya under St. Ronnie, 41, and 43?
BarryB Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 9:59 am
St. Ronnie?? I think you mean St. George. :)
May 19th, 2009 at 9:52 am
SGL
A better question would be “hey potential scientists, doctors, nurses, humanitarians, future leaders of our country, how’d that abortion thing work out for ya???”
Southern Girl Lib Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Blissful thinks the raped must birth. Incest too.
flap Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
So in addition to rape, we add another crime in: murder.
Is it the unborn child’s FAULT that it was conceived by rape or incest? It should be snuffed out and deprived of life due to that fact?
VegasLib Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
You must be born to be murdered.
Sarah Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
I dunno, was it the woman’s FAULT for conceiving a fetus via rape or incestual abuse?
Should the woman be viewed as no more than a vessel for childbirth for the next 9 months?
Perhaps you can provide some advice on how she can set aside the daily hell and torture of being daily reminded- no YEARLY reminded- of her experience as a helpless victim, so that she can carry her rapist’s/relative’s child to term, just to suit your denominational sensibilities?
TDro319 Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
It’s not murder, Flap. It’s collateral damage. You know, just like the innocent men, women and children slaughter in Iraq arer “collateral damage”.
flap Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
“You must be born to be murdered.”
Based on law? Partially, but even the way the laws are now, if someone kills a pregnant mother that can be double homicide.
Based on reality? Late-term abortion is murder.
TDro, do you not see the difference between people being accidentally killed in war and purposeful murder of unborn children in the womb? I know you’re not that dense.
flap Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Sarah, so to calm her emotions she is allowed to murder? If I am mentally unstable, and my children are causing problems, can I kill them off if it makes me feel better? It’s illogical, Sarah. Denominational sensibilities? How about if you were pro-slavery? Would you say that being anti-slavery is a religious choice? It’s nonsensical? I’m basing this on SCIENCE. Libs LOOOOOOOVE science…a mid/late-term fetus is a HUMAN BEING scientifically and therefore must have human rights.
I’m not saying it’s EASY or FAIR, Sarah, please don’t get me wrong. I’m a guy and I don’t have to ever have to cope with something horrid like that. If I had a girlfriend or wife that was raped, would it be easy? NO. I would *hope* to God that I would not be hypocritical; I would hope I would tell her to carry the child to term. I believe I would, because I would try consider the baby’s life. It’s easy to make the decision to kill since abortion is legal, though.
Murder doesn’t undo the rape or incest. Two wrongs don’t make a right, and it shouldn’t be a legal “choice,” ESPECIALLY mid/late-term.
Sarah Reply:
May 20th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Flap: “I’m a guy and I don’t have to ever have to cope with something horrid like that.”
Exactly.
Instead of throwing out red herrings like “fetuses have rights!” and “abortion is murdering a living human being!” and “abortion is equal to slavery!” why don’t you just answer the following questions:
1) Why does your concern for children END once they are born?
2) How many unwanted children are you going to adopt or financially support?
3) Do you feel that the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan is unethical, since innocents are being killed?
4) Since you’re all for human rights, are you boycotting Chinese-made goods?
May 19th, 2009 at 10:00 am
You must be born to be murdered.
Not true. Folks are convicted of double homicide all the time in the case of murder against a pregnant woman.
VegasLib Reply:
May 20th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Because the child was awaited for. Because the fetus was developed. Conception does not automatically create a human being. It takes time after conception to do that. Sustenance. I am not and will never be for mid or late term abortions, but if a woman aborts very near conception, when the fetus is still but a cell, she is murdering no one.
May 19th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
An Ode to Alan Keyes:
“Locked Up” by Akon
I’m steady tryin’ to find the motive, why I do what I do,
The freedom ain’t gettin’ no closer, no matter how far I go,
My car is stolen, the registration,
The cops patrolling, and that ain’t done stop me,
Then I got locked up,
They won’t let me out,
Head up town to re-up, back with a couple [Keyes],
Making so much money, products moving fast,
And as I sold the last bag,
Fuqed around and got locked up,
They won’t let me out,
Visitation long longer comes by, seems like they forgot about me,
Commissary getting empty, cell mates getting food without me,
Can’t wait to get out and move forward with my life,
Pay me a visit! Send me some money orders! Where’s my lawyer!
Get me out of here!
Please accept me phone calls!
May 20th, 2009 at 5:36 pm