Do you think Fox News is a threat or a menace?

sure, the poll is crap, but only in the way most polls are crap. 76% of people think other people are relying too much on the government, but at least 86% of those people (64/76) would rely on government to rebuild their flooded homes, 57% of those people think it's the gov'ts job to make sure people can eat, etc., etc.

These responses are a probably a little soft. If you focus-grouped a small sample of the respondents, you could probably dislodge them from those pro-government views fairly easily. But at the very least, it's obvious that most people don't recoil from the notion of pervasive government involvement the way the GOP assumes.

Design leading questions to suggest the desired answers. Nothing new or unexpected from Faux Newz here.

BTW... "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?"

Do you think the economic recovery legislation that passed last week is better described as a stimulus bill or a spending bill?

Some similar questions in this vein:

Do you think a Cadillac is better described as a car or as an automobile?

Do you think Canada is better described as a country or as a nation?

Do you think a an F-16 is better described as a fighter plane or as a fighter jet?

Do you think Warren Buffet is better described as super-wealthy or as super-rich?

* 68% said the federal government... food.

* 66% said the federal government ... have health care.

* 52% said the federal government ... housing

* 51% said the federal government .... a job have a job.

Why those four questions? Someone at Fox has been reading Cass Sunstein

Fox News should poll their audience to see if any of them know what the term 'cognitive dissonance' is and whether they had ever experienced it.

Actually I think that what this shows is that underneath the conservative brainwashing that "the base" has undergone in the last 30 years, that the majority of them want the same things that progressives want, although they would differ widely in how to implement them.

Because those later questions were not presented in the form of talking points, so the Pavlov's rats conditioned reaction to certain key words/phrases/concepts did not occur. Thus when presented out of that context, people's truer feelings about certain things can emerge.

These people have been manipulated to such an extent they have literally lost their sense of what is good for them and bad for them.

I don't put the governors in the same class as the base at all. However... when push comes to shove and money is offered from the "spending package", all bloviating aside, in the end they take the money. Sanford, the biggest bloviator on that subject, folds within 3 days. Now that is what I call "deep seated principles".

I actually think this poll reveals something quite useful. We can not speak to "the base" in any language that triggers the Pavlovian responses. But if someone can figure out the right language to speak to them about their desire to have the federal gvt make people's lives better, in terms they won't emotionally react to, there is a strong underlying desire to see things different than they are now. Interestingly enough, if anyone at all could do that, Obama would be high on the list.

Oh man I hope those numbers are wrong. I don't want to pay any more for others' care.

What happened to people doing for themselves? Guess it's an outdated concept. Too bad for all of us.

Change "federal government...responsibility" to "right" and watch the numbers drop.

What happened to people doing for themselves?

pretty much went away with the advent of civilization

This shows the disconnect in people's minds between the government services side and the taxation side.

I've heard the suggestion that anyone who proposes new spending should explain how they will pay for it. That may be; but the same should hold for anyone who proposes tax cuts. Exactly what programs will you cut to pay for them? (California GOP, I'm looking at you.)

I don't want to pay any more for others' care. What happened to people doing for themselves? Guess it's an outdated concept. Too bad for all of us.

I believe it is called "insurance", which is not a new concept.

"...For a "center-right nation," ..."-Steve Benen.

Will you stop repeating this lie. Most people already believe it and we are NOT a "center right nation" as the polls demonstrate we are a progressive liberal nation on all the major issues but our conservative media darlings keep repeating this "center right" nonsense as if it is just an accepted fact. It isn't and we aren't.

Fox starts for the results it wants and ends up saying "Oh shit" on this one. Now we will see how well they will ignore the poll.

"I don't want to pay any more for others' care. "

I just want to pay more for my own?

You are ALREADY paying more for others' care: those that don't have insurance. You know WHY it costs so much to go to the emergency room? Because they have to treat anyone who comes in, and those that come in often do because they do not have health care and therefore cannot get an appointment with a doctor.

You are totally ignorant on how health care works in this country.

I hope you get a serious but curable disease so you can find out.

Fox News is aimed at the Rush Limbaugh, "Bush was a great President" crowd... folks near the end of the bell curve.

They are GOP Talking Points and GOP Propaganda.

That is still a large demographic, so Fox News doesn't care what people outside that demographic think... they don't make money from this group.

The only thing that bothers me is when Rupert Murdock's other numerous GOP Propaganda outlets site each other as a reference... that's pretty sleazy IMHO.

The truth of the matter is clearly laid bare to broad daylight, that the dim bulbs still want the spotlight.

The spotlight ain't the whole picture, folks.

The American people see beyond the spotlight and see darkness.

It's not that government will solve everything it's just nice to have a bright light to navigate the darkness which is our economy after years of Bush and co.

bjobotts: To me it was fairly clear that Mr. Benen was being sarcastic. He was using the poll data to show that the "center-right nation" thing is a myth.

What happened to people doing for themselves? Guess it's an outdated concept.

You know, when Hobbes described life in the "war of all against all" as "nasty, brutish, and short," he wasn't describing a desirable condition.

How ironic that movement conservatism's anti-tax jihad has led them to reject centuries of political thought going all the way back to Leviathan. I am not harsh enough by pointing out that these yahoos want to resurrect the Gilded Age -- they want to take us all the way back to the Fuedal Era -- and all in the name of avoiding "serfdom." At least for themselves, natch.

Gregory:

How else could you describe a system characterized by the bifrucated wealth disparity that Republican supply-side economic policy reliably produces, and by all-powerful corporations paired with a non-unionized, non-organized labor pool? Feudalism really is the only term.

Lyn: What happened to people doing for themselves? Guess it's an outdated concept. Too bad for all of us.

Who's forcing you to live in human society? If the burdens of civilization are too much for you, why are you posting on this board instead of out in the wilderness somewhere hunting down some food?

Feudalism really is the only term.

"Feudalism" is a particularly poor term since that system is, however variably it works in practice, distinguished by formal, bidirectional bonds of obligation.

"Plutocracy" would be more accurate. "Plutocratic oligarchy" would be even more accurate. "A war of all against all" would be equally accurate -- less precise in terms of formal nomenclature, but better at conveying the experience of living in it.

What happened to people doing for themselves?

What happened to people not posting under a new handle daily?

Party of one, your table's ready. Sorry it's so close to the men's room door.

Americans have no problem with socialism, so long as you don't call it socialism.

* Do you think Americans are starting to rely too much on the government and
not enough on themselves?

Yeah, I was going to build a superhighway this weekend, but slept late.

Yeah, I was going to build a superhighway this weekend, but slept late.

Very nice.

Now ask them as a followup if they have any ideas about why the government is so much more efficient at murder & corporate giveaways than accomplishing any of that.

"Should" isn't "can"...

76% think people rely on the government too much but over 50% think the government needs to help people.

It seems there IS compassionate conservatism.
If fewer people got this kind of help, perhaps they'd be comfortable with it?

This poll suggests incremental approaches that start with the worst off is indeed a good way to go.

Expand medicare to cover the uninsured who are unlikely to be employable in a job with benefits and the pushback should be pretty minimal.