In Which We Learn Something From a Poll

I tend to refer to those who hold political positions which differ from my own as morons. I should not do this, even when I am correct. And shockingly, there are even times when I am wrong.

Our Founding fathers understood that people never agreed on everything and rarely agreed on anything. Debate is healthy; whenever you are so certain that you are correct and the other guy couldn't possibly be correct you are almost certainly going to make some huge mistakes.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely and all that.

CNN (the network for morons) published a poll recently that I thought was enlightening. Here is their shocking conclusion:

A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.

56% of us, in turns out, have concluded that the federal government, though necessary, is basically not such a good thing - especially when it gets too big. This concept is not new; it is the essence of a document you may have heard about. It's called THE CONSTITUTION.

This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, either. Every debate really needs to start with this thought embedded in the minds of both sides BECAUSE IT IS THE VERY FOUNDATION OF THIS COUNTRY. Yet it is clear that this is poorly understood by most politicians, which is further evidence that they should never, under any circumstances, be allowed to serve more than two terms in office and why their family members should be denied employment by the government in any capacity while they are in office.

But I digress. Back to this CNN poll:

The survey indicates a partisan divide on the question: only 37 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Independents and nearly 7 in 10 Republicans say the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans.

Does it bother you that they give percentages for for Democrats and Independents but when they get to Republicans it's "7 out of 10"? WTF? 65% id almost 7 out of 10 if you round up, right? Same with 66%,67%,68% and 69%. And 70% is actually "7 out of 10," so we can rule that out (although it is CNN).

So why "7 out of 10"?

Could it be that if they listed the actual percentage for Republican responders it would be FREAKING OBVIOUS that the difference between Republicans and Independents was statistically insignificant? (The poll had a margin of error of +/- 3%, such that the Independents at 63% could really be as high as 66%.)

So basically it's clear that 2 out of 3 Republicans and Independents feel this way. What's wrong with Democrats?

Reasonable people can disagree and all that, but I think we have a consensus on this issue. The only ones who don't get it are the ones leaching off the government like parasites.

Now we can call those with whom we disagree names, but that isn't helpful. But Ted Kennedy did look all bloated like a tick.

Just saying.