A special hour-long episode of Poll Hub recorded live with a virtual audience starts off with a look at the partisan realignment in America and interesting new poll data about what makes a Republican a Republican and a Democrat a Democrat in 2021. We explore why troubling trends in journalism and polling are meeting – and making both worse in the process. Also, what’s happening to polling in our hyperpartisan era? And we end with a sweet fun fact from Lee.
A new poll from Pew Research shows that two-thirds of Republicans say they want Trump to remain a political figure and 44% want him to run for office again. Democrats couldn’t disagree more. No surprise there as the GOP is pretty much Trump’s party right now. But, the survey also uncovered significant differences between the parties in how people think about criticism of their party leaders.
Next up, a look at how the increasingly incessant hunt for clicks in journalism combined with the proliferation of new and often shoddy polls is leading to a problematic perfect storm. A recent column in the Washington Post taking a New York Times reporter to task for publicizing a totally bogus poll from Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is a good place to start. We also talk about a poll in the California Governor recall race that demonstrates a variation on the theme.
And then a conversation about polling in our hyperpartisan era. When everything from wearing a mask to choosing a restaurant seems to fall along party lines, what chance does the polling industry have? New research from Duke University shows that people are more likely to trust a poll if it backs their own opinions. And stay for Lee’s fun fact, just in time for the trick-or-treaters!