A Signifcant Poll on the Massachusetts Vote, Hayden: Pressing forward for peace

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010010320/poll-shouts-message-massachusetts-voters-were-sending

 

Poll Shouts The Message Massachusetts Voters Were Sending

 

By Isaiah J. Poole

OurFuture.org: January 20, 2010

 

The numbers in the Research 2000 exit poll released Wednesday by MoveOn.org and Democracy for America speak for themselves: The Massachusetts election was not a call to go back to conservatism. It was, as Robert Borosage on our site said earlier today and as such commentators as Katrina vanden Heuvel are saying, a call for Democrats to be bolder, more audacious and unapologetic in pursuing the populist reforms the public thought it was going to get after the 2008 elections.

The poll focused on Massachusetts residents who voted for President Obama in 2008 but who either voted for Senate republican candidate Scott Brown or did not vote at all. These responses from Brown voters should stand out:

• Generally speaking do you think Barack Obama and Democrats in Washington, DC are delivering enough on the change Obama promised to bring to America during the campaign?

  Yes 31%
  No 57%
  Not sure 12%

• Do you think Democrats in Washington, D.C. are fighting hard enough to challenge the Republican policies of the Bush years, aren't fighting hard enough to change those policies, or are fighting about right?

  Not Enough 37%
  About Right 21%
  Too Hard 15%
  Not Sure 27%

• If the Democratic Congress passed a bill that laid down stronger rules of the road for Wall Street and cut bonuses for the executives of companies that received government bailouts, would that make you more likely or less likely to vote Democratic in the 2010 general election?

  More likely 53%
  Less likely 14%
  No effect 33%

• What would do more to improve our nation's economic conditions: Decreasing government spending OR tightening government regulation of Wall Street and corporate executives?

  Cut spending 43%
  Tighten regulation 25%

• Democrats in Washington are more on my side than on the side of the lobbyists and special interests, OR Democrats in Washington are more on the side of the lobbyists and special interests than on the side of people like me.

  The lobbyists 47%
  People like me 23%
  Not sure 30%

• (Asked of people who opposed the Senate healthg care reform bill:) Do you think it goes too far or doesn't go far enough?

  Too far 23%
  Not far enough 36%

• Would you favor or oppose the national government offering everyone the choice of a government administered health insurance plan — something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get — that would compete with private health insurance plans?

  Favor 82%
  Oppose 14%
  Not Sure 4%

It's also noteworthy that in each of those questions, people who self-identified as independents were nearly identical in their views to self-identified Democrats.

The bottom line: It ain't that complicated. A progressive populist message on kitchen-table domestic issues is a winning message, even in a time when voters are wary of government and concerned about deficits.

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From: Tom Hayden for PDA
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 4:01 AM
Subject: Pressing forward for peace

The Long War requires a longer
peace and justice movement

As another year of war rolls in, I want to thank PDA for its continuing
pressure on the pillars of power which prevents these wars from escalating
further and poses an important political obstacle to the Pentagon and
Administration.

It's not simple. Study is required, to be sure.
But the Long War of fifty years against Muslim countries where radical
Islamists operate, and where the oil flows through tankers and pipelines, is
not hard to grasp. That's a continuous war through 13 American
presidential elections.

If Bilmes and Stiglitz project a three trillion dollar cost for Iraq and
Afghanistan, you have to wonder where the money is coming from. It's from
education and health care, for starters. If 6,274 Americans have died in
Iraq and Afghanistan thus far, it's not hard to imagine 10,000 dead by
Obama's second term.

That is, if the president wins a second term. The hope of the Obama
presidency depends on ending these wars. The hope of our domestic agenda
depends on ending these wars as well.

Obama has offered us a centrist proposal, to which we should pay close
attention. On the one hand, he is sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan,
which we should urge Congress to oppose by supporting Barbara Lee's HR 3699
(to cut funding) and Jim McGovern's HR 2404 (exit strategy). On the other
hand, he proposes to begin withdrawing troops in 18 months, which we should
support and hold him to. No one in the anti-war movement supports the
President's escalation, but we should be very aware that his withdrawal
plan, however weak, is his concession to the peace movement and is
absolutely loathed by the Long War advocates.

Don't forget Iraq, where the president is on track to withdraw all American
troops, and where political ambushes lie ahead. Nor Pakistan and Yemen,
where secret wars, secret deaths and secret costs are being hidden by the
master of secret operations, Gen. McChrystal (whose five years in Iraq are
classified).

The Cheneys and Liebermans and Fox News want to chase al-Qaeda from Iraq to
Afghanistan to Pakistan to Yemen in a weird revival of the old domino
theory. It's almost as if our hawks are agents of al-Qaeda, so thoroughly do
they pursue the al-Qaeda strategy of exhausting the American economy and
stretching our armed forces to the breaking point.

Here are two ways you can help the peace effort go forward: first, sign and
circulate this petition and join The Peace Exchange (for now, go to my
website, www.tomhayden.com). In addition to pressuring Congress and the
administration, these are ways to link up with a global peace alliance
pressuring the NATO war alliance, city by city, country by country.

Thank you for persevering for peace. The Long War will require a longer
peace and justice movement.

For peace and justice,

Tom Hayden
PDA Advisory Board member