One-Third of 18-24 Year Olds: Obama Is Abandoning Progressive Causes

By Alexander Heffner / November 4th, 2009

Steph Uncategorized economy, faith, Obama, war, white house, work, zogby

We ask some pretty interesting questions here at Zogby International. And, I must say, we get some pretty interesting answers. You, our faithful panelists and readers, also ask us some pretty interesting questions in return. However there’s one question that comes up a lot. It’s something that many of you want to know. And it goes something like this:

“Hey, you people at Zogby, I enjoy your surveys but –What’s up with those wacky demographics?”

If you’ve taken more than one or two of our surveys, you know exactly what I’m talking about, right? Are you a WalMart shopper? If so, how often do you shop there? Are you a NASCAR fan? Do you consider yourself a citizen of your city or town, the U.S. or the planet earth? And on one memorable survey, we even asked if you were a tree what kind of a tree would you be? We ask standard demographics of course, questions you’d see on any other survey, age, race, income, education, etc. but those are what you’d expect, and here at Zogby we’re proud of being ahead of the curve and, to mix my metaphors, sometimes that means thinking outside the box.

Essentially we’re trend spotters, I can’t count the number of meetings here at Zogby where we discuss trends in one form or another, and in fact it would probably be safe to say we talk about trends at nearly every meeting. We’re looking for what’s happening, and, just as importantly, we’re looking for who’s making it happen. As with any of the more standard demographic questions, we are, to put it simply, grouping people based on commonalities and differences. When we have groups of people, versus just an individual, we can say something about what the group as a whole thinks.  We can determine how America views the President or if a majority of beer drinkers prefer Guinness to Coors.  It’s the same with the wacky questions.

Take yourself as an example. You’re not just your age, or your race, or your education, you’re so much more than that. Your opinions and feelings have been shaped by your family, by where and how you grew up. You’re as much a product of your generation, the Woodstockers, or the Nikes, as you are of your geographic location, as much a product of your birth order, as you are of your gender, all of these and more come together and create the glasses through which you see the world.

WalMart shoppers and NASCAR fans have proven to primarily vote more conservatively, so when we see this strong cohort move, we know that we are seeing a shift that maybe we wouldn’t have otherwise spotted.

And what about that planet citizenship question? Well, much of Mr. Zogby’s recent work has to do with America’s First Globals™, who often agree that they see themselves as citizens of planet earth. These are the people who are likely to have passports, and who are just as likely to tell you that their best friend lives in Belarus, as in Frackville. This question was one of the predictive identifiers for this generation, and as they are the ones we will one day turn this nation over to, we here at Zogby agree that knowing what they think, and how, will help us follow them into the future.

Do you have an idea for an emerging trend?  Leave a comment and let us know or submit a question in the ‘contact us’ box on the right hand side of the blog!

Written by Karen Scott, Managing Editor, Senior Analyst at Zogby International. In this role, she oversees the team that creates Zogby International’s surveys, scientific reports of survey results, and research papers.  Karen has half a decade of experience with Zogby and has played an integral role working with hundreds of clients ranging from political activists to consumer trends.

Leann Uncategorized education, faith, first globals, future, international, race, sports, work, zogby

For a number of years, the American people have been losing faith in our national institutions, particularly our government and political system.

Polling numbers from all sources are very consistent when measuring approval of various institutions and government leaders. President Barack Obama won on a message of hope and change, but his approval ratings are now in the 50-50 range. Approval percentages for Congress are in the low 20s, and neither political party gets the approval of a majority.

In his Forbes.com column, John Zogby goes on to look at polling that shows one-third of U.S. adults agree that states or regions have the right to secede, and that a majority believe the nation needs more than two major political parties.

Paul politics faith, John Zogby, Obama, zogby

The public opinion honeymoon appears to be over for the Obama Presidency. Here’s what our latest measure of his popularity shows:

“A new Zogby Interactive survey shows a slight decline in President Barack Obama’s job approval, with 48% of likely voters now approving of the job he is doing as president, down from 51% who said the same in an interactive/telephone hybrid poll conducted in mid-June. Forty-nine percent now say they disapprove of the job the president has done so far in office and 4% are not sure.

“The survey found similar results when likely voters were asked specifically to rate President Obama’s performance—47% give him a positive rating, with 22% rating his job performance as “excellent” and 25% rating it as “good.” But slightly more than half (53%) give the president a negative job performance rating, with 10% who say he is doing a “fair” job as president and 43% who say he is doing a “poor” job—up from 36% who said he was doing a poor job in mid-June. (Zogby uses a four-point scale of excellent, good, fair and poor, and aggregates excellent and good to determine positive ratings.)”

First of all, the two scales are identical showing President Obama with about as many approving as disapproving,” said John Zogby, President and CEO of Zogby International. “What is troubling for the President is not only his slide with voters but that they are re-polarized. He is strong with Democrats but only has 6% approval from Republicans and 40% from Independents. Support from young voters is high (59%) but he is down several points from the margin they gave him in November 2008. His support wanes as voters get older.

Was Obama’s quest for a post-partisan politics naïve?  Are people losing faith in his ability to boost the economy, and in his approach to issues such as health care? Or, do voters still stand very much where they were on Election Day, when Obama won 53% of the vote? Given the Democrats’ edge over Republicans in party identification, does Obama still hold the upper hand?

Paul Uncategorized economy, faith, health, international, John Zogby, Obama, politics, polls, zogby

If you’ve taken a few of our surveys , you’ll know that one of our favorite topics is the American Dream – what it is, whether respondents believe they can achieve it, and why. When we ask whether respondents believe in the American Dream, one of the answers we always provide is that the respondent believes the American dream is achieved through spiritual fulfillment rather than material success.  In recent polls, we’ve had between 30 and 40% of respondents select this answer.   We call those who select this answer “secular spiritualists”.  Another group, called “materialists”, answer that the American Dream consists of material success. This answer is also usually chosen by  between 30 and 40% of respondents. Here is an excerpt from The Way We’ll Be describing some characteristics of secular spiritualists and comparing them to materialists:

“Secular spiritualists are likely to be aged forty-one or younger. They are less likely to be male.. and more likely to be female parents with a job at home and make fifty thousand dollars a year or less. Secular spiritualists attend church far more regularly than materialists and are far more likely to be born-again. And yet they are also more likely than materialists to identify themselves as liberal and to have voted for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. .. Their personal relationship to God or any particular faith or creed.. might be a key issue in their own lives, but it’s not a salient issue in defining their relationship one to the other. Rather, what pulls them together and gives them definition is the need to move beyond professional and financial ambition, the acquisition of things, and the quest for a luxurious lifestyle.”

How do you personally define the American Dream? Do you feel that you are more of a secular spiritual or more of a materialist?

Katy John Zogby, culture, future, lifestyles American dream, faith, lifestyle, polls, zogby

Are we now seeing the beginnings of a shift of religious activism to the left in response to global climate change?

Zogby International completed a survey for the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change that found majorities of Catholics making a connection between the tenants of their faith and the need to act to reverse climate change. This need to act tied directly to Catholic beliefs on protecting God’s creation, as well as the poor and future generations.

There has also been growing interest in this issue from evangelical Protestants. Here is part of a report from the April 23 Charlotte Observer: “Leading the charge is Jonathan Merritt, a graduate of Southeastern and the son of former Southern Baptist President James Merritt. Now an Atlanta-based writer, Merritt said the environment is no longer the exclusive domain of the liberal left.

“In the last few years we’ve seen many conservatives say this is a moral issue, and Christians have an answer for it,” Merritt said. He points to pastors such as Rick Warren, the Southern Baptist megachurch minister who has shown an environmental awareness.”

The Evangelical Environmental Network provides a guide for churches to explore what the group calls Creation Care. Televangelist Pat Robertson appears in TV ads with liberal Al Sharpton to promote climate change action. 

Is global climate change a religious issue that could unite liberals and conservatives?  Will social issues like abortion and gay rights recede from the political spotlight to be replaced by climate change?

Paul culture, global issues, religion environment, faith, future, Generations, international, religion, war, work, zogby

A recent article in the New York Times reported on the results of a study looking at end-of-life care and treatment for cancer patients. The study , which used a questionnaire and interviews to divide the patients by levels of religious observance and faith, tracked which types of patients preferred aggressive  and “life-prolonging” medical care  during the last week of their lives.  The study found that during the last week of their life,  the most religious patients were three times as likely as less religious patients to be put on a mechanical ventilator . In addition, less religious patients were more likely to do advance care planning such as preparing a living will or having a health care proxy. Senior author of the study, Holly G. Prigerson, notes in the article that ” people think that spiritual patients are more likely to say their lives are in God’s hands – ‘Let what happens happen’ – but in fact we know they want more aggressive care.”

Compare this with the results of a recent Zogby Interactive survey on death attitudes taken in November 2008.   We asked respondents whether they strongly agreed, somewhat agreed, somewhat disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement “the prospect of my own death arouses anxiety in me”. We also asked how often the respondent attends religious services – more than weekly, weekly, 1-2 times a month, on holidays, rarely, or never.   In our case, the respondents who attend services more often are not more anxious about death than those who are less observant. In fact, our results show the opposite pattern. 32.3% of those who attend services weekly or more than weekly strongly or somewhat agree that the prospect of their own death arouses anxiety, while 30.7% of those who attend services 1-2 times a month, 41.0% of those who attend services on holidays, and 41.5% of those who attend services rarely or never feel the same way.

Why would more religiously observant people claim to be less anxious about their own death but be more likely to seek aggressive care or not plan for the end of their life?  Do you see this as a contradiction, or are these surveys addressing two separate issues?

Katy death, future death, faith, health, holidays, religion, zogby

Working at Zogby International often requires us to think hard about how our survey questions should be posed. We do our best to write clear, unbiased questions.  However, it’s not always that easy!  Many of our clients have agendas (not that there is anything wrong with that!) and hope that our data will support them. While we want our clients to be happy, we can do so only by adhering to our policy of writing honest and unbiased questions. In virtually all cases, this leads to extensive editing and re-editing of all questions. Still, not once have our results been met with an odium from those who, often because they have an agenda of their own, have claimed that this honesty has not been successfully achieved.

Most recently, we worked with Discovery Institute on how the public sees evolution and its teaching in our schools. Our data showed that a vast majority of adults (78%:14%) says that  the statement “Biology teachers should teach Darwin’s theory of evolution, but also the scientific evidence against it” more closely resembles their view than the statement “Biology teachers should teach only Darwin’s theory of evolution and the  scientific evidence that supports it.” Options “neither” and “not sure” were chosen by 5% and 2% of survey respondents, respectively.

One of the more cited reactions was that of Richard Dawkins, a famous biologist, who has written that our question was “stupid” and “dishonest” because it presupposes that there exists scientific evidence against evolution that could be taught.  On this view, even answering this question assumes approval of this premise, not unlike the infamous “when did you stop beating  your wife ” case.

Do you believe that his assessment was correct or that this possibility was covered by options “neither” and “not sure”? How do you think this question should have been asked?

Zeljka methodology evolution, faith, international, work, zogby