I was surprised that the results of this poll, which I found on the local paper's website, were so evenly split. As evenly as it is possible to split them, in fact. I was glad the spare point went to the only reasonable response.I would interpret this poll (related to this case) to show that of those who responded, the top bar represents those who would fit the "conservative" profile; the middle bar would be those who (in this case, at least) favor a more libertarian approach; while the bottom bar are those I would consider "progressives".
Of course, the case could be made to swap the top and bottom.
The main reason I consider the bottom bar to represent those of leftward inclinations is that they are the ones who advocate changing things such as drug "laws" to legalize marijuana use rather than simply recognizing that a bad "law" carries no authority.
On the other hand, "the right" also works to change gun "laws" that happen to bother them... so maybe there is (once again) no real difference between "left" and "right"; it's always about authoritarian or libertarian after all.
Well, there are other possible interpretations, Kent. You are assuming the bottom one consists of only people who would not dream of gambling without a law change. However it may also have folks who say, "If I gamble it's my business, and I'll do it if I please, but I'd rather be in a situation where I don't risk being arrested for it." In other words, there may be more libertarians than you think. :-)
ReplyDeleteThat is a possibility, but living around here makes me doubt it somewhat. I'd love to be wrong, though. And I'm doing all I can to change the local balance toward more libertarians.
ReplyDelete