What Do the People Think?

I’m looking over the 189-page results of a recent Harvard-Harris poll of 1,778 voters conducted last week, and there are some interesting findings to pass along:

Andrew Cuomo: Very Favorable/Favorable— 31%; Unfavorable/Very Unfavorable—42%

(Note: the poll finished on Feb. 25, before most of the sexual harassment stories hit the media.)

This question is interesting for its even split: “Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: The 2020 election was unfair because big tech companies, Hollywood, big corporations, and the media worked together to hold back information from voters and change the rules against Donald Trump, or were their actions fair?”

Agree: 49%; Disagree: 51%

Now here’s where it starts to get interesting: “Which do you find more concerning—the violence that occurred in American cities over the summer of 2020, or the incident at the U.S. Capitol on January 6?”

Violence in American cities: 55%; Incident at the Capitol on Jan. 6: 45%.

More: “Do you think the perpetrators of violence in American cities over the summer are being looked for and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law?” Yes: 48%; No: 52%.

“Do you think Antifa is a domestic terrorist group or not a domestic terrorist group?”

Terrorist group: 71%; Not a terrorist group: 29%.

“Do you think that the events at the U.S. Capitol are being used by politicians to suppress legitimate political movements or do you think there is no such suppression of legitimate movements?

Being used to suppress legitimate movements: 64%; Not being used to suppress: 36%

“Do you think the riots are being used as an excuse to silence political voices on the right or is the reaction to them a legitimate response to the violence?”

Being used to silence the right: 59%; Legitimate response, 41%.

There are several immigration questions that suggest huge vulnerabilities for Democrats. Start with: “Do you think that coming into the United States without any documentation should be a crime or not a crime?”

Crime: 65%; Not a crime, 35%.

“Do you think that any holes in the border wall with Mexico should be patched, or should be left open?”

Patched: 73%; Left open, 27%.

“Should the hundreds of miles of border wall that have been constructed over the last few years be left in place or dismantled?”

Left in place: 79%; Dismantled, 21%. Score one for Trump.

Finally (for now): “Do you think Amazon should be able to ban the selling of books and movies on its platform based on their political viewpoint or should they not be allowed to ban the selling of books based on their political perspective?”

Amazon should be allowed to ban: 40%; Amazon should not be allowed to ban: 60%.

Then the survey asked specifically about the banned Ryan Anderson book: “Recently Amazon pulled off its store a book challenging some of the assumptions of the transgender movement. Do you think Amazon should be taking such books out of its online store or should be allowing the book to be sold on its platform?”

Amazon should remove the book: 39%; Amazon should not remove the book, 61%.

There’s a lot more in this very long survey that comes at most questions from several angles, producing a lot of confusion and contradictory results, but the deficiencies of this kind of opinion survey are a subject for a rant on another occasion.

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