[a] poll released Thursday by Public Opinion Strategies shows that 62 percent of Americans say that marriage in the United States should be between a man and a woman.Sounds bad, in fact it runs directly contrary to a string of recent polls from a variety of mainstream polling organizations, the most recent one of which was a Gallup poll from early May. But here's the point:
The poll found that 62 percent of Americans agreed with the statement, “I believe marriage should be defined ONLY as a union between one man and one woman,” with 53 percent strongly agreeing with the statement. Thirty-five percent disagreed.That is, they did not ask if same-sex marriage should be legal or not. Rather, they asked people how they personally would define the word "marriage." This is like asking a group of women if they personally would have an abortion and using that as a measure of support for abortion rights. Or asking people if they smoke pot and using that as a measure of support for reforming drug laws. It is a completely bogus measure.
And the fact that the wingnuts and wackos and their fellow-traveling bigots have tried to use this bogus result to support their wingy, wacky, bigotry is, as I said, a sign of some desperation. They are losing the argument, they know they are losing the argument, so just like all good right-wingers (see Rule #3), they are trying to change the subject.
I believe that it will not work.
Footnote: As the linked article notes, Public Opinion Strategies is a GOPper polling firm that was hired by the Alliance Defense Fund - founded in part by Focus on the Family, Campus Crusade for Christ, and the American Family Association - to conduct the poll. POS (a very apt abbreviation) released a one-page summary of the results which did not include more than basic information on methodology and provided no breakdown of results.
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