Poll: 46% Of Mississippi Republicans Think Interracial Marriage Should Be Illegal
Assuming it’s accurate, this may qualify as the most depressing poll result I’ve seen in quite sometime:
Americans nationwide are evenly divided over the issue of same sex marriage. But Republicans in Mississippi are divided over a wholly different wedlock issue: interracial marriage.
In a PPP poll released Thursday, a 46% plurality of registered Republican voters said they thought interracial marriage was not just wrong, but that it should be illegal. 40% said interracial marriage should be legal.
Someone please inform these people that Loving v. Virginia was decided in 1967.
As this poll fits Doug’s impression of people in Mississippi, we can’t rely on him to ask the obvious questions.
Who thinks of taking a poll of republicans in Mississippi and asking if interracial marriage should be legal? Could there be a more blatant attempt to paint conservatives as racists than this? Would anyone with an I.Q over room temperature not question the motivation behind this?
Of course, I accept the results and methodology from this liberal polling group at face value, just like Doug.
(sigh)
jwest – no matter how blatant the attempt to paint Mississippi conservatives as racists might be, it wouldn’t be effective if Mississippi conservatives didn’t respond as if they were, y’know, racist.
Seriously are we really surprised that this would happen in the only state left that still has the Confederate Battle Flag as part of its state flag
JWest, regardless of what preconceptions may have existed that motivated the poll, Mississippi Republicans could have just said that interracial marriage should be legal. Seriously. It’s not a hard question. It wasn’t even a leading question.
“Do you think interracial marriage should be legal or illegal?”
The wrong answer is: “illegal”
I’m a Republican and my family has a long history of marrying “outside our race”. I really wish you radical lefties would stop trying to tar us with your own brush
jwest’s response to this is the same as his fury of mean ol’ Katie Couric asking those horrible questions of Sarah Palin — why do you big meanies ask us things when you know that what we say in response will make us look bad?
Jimmy, when polling I guess we forgot to call your family… so we’ll correct the findings to 45.998% who believe interracial marriages should be illegal.
As a Mississippian who has heard this kind of thing before, I’ll add an interesting perspective. Please note in advance that I do NOT subscribe to this. At all.
I’ve heard it said on more than one occasion that there’s “nothing wrong with interracial marriages, or interracial dating… only that they are against it because of the difficulty they would be putting themselves and their children through due to hurtful comments by other people.”
It’s reminiscent of the argument that exists today about gay adoption– when people say “they shouldn’t adopt because it will be hell for those kids to endure the ridicule [from people like me].”
p.s. I do NOT subscribe to this.
Eddy, I’ve heard that, too (I’m from the South, but not Mississippi). I’ve even heard that from one person that I am pretty sure wasn’t a racist*. I think that it’s mostly a self-justification. But even if it’s earnest, that’s a reason not to do have an interracial relationship. It takes a different mentality, in my view, to believe that it ought to be *illegal*. That’s the big part for me. A lot of these polls on a lot of things I think are answered without thorough thought, but the word “illegal” should have been a flag. But it wasn’t.
* – I didn’t know his family, though. It’s possible that he knew his parents would freak out over a biracial grandchild.
This can’t be.
I keep hearing from conservatives that there’s no such thing as racism anymore. And that it plays no role in conservative politics. And then they call me a racist for daring to suggest that race actually plays a pretty big role in conservatism, in the GOP, and in attitudes toward Obama.
Imagine my surprise then to discover that I was right all along.
I’m sure Drew and the rest of the racism-deniers will be along to apologize to me any moment now.
I wonder if they did a similar poll of Democrats, how many of them would be opposed to interracial marriages? Democrats have a long history of being racist.
Southern Hoosier, it’s a fair question to ask the same of the dems, but it’s intellectually dishonest to pretend the dems of today are anything remotely simulation in attitudes, beliefs, and actions as they were decades ago. Let’s be adults here.
I’ve never seen a group of people who put such faith in polls.
Anyone versed in polling operations will tell you that with the proper wording, question placement, inflection, time of day, weighting and a hundred other variables, you could get the same result on the same question from liberals in Massachusetts.
Unbelievably naïve.
jwest:
As pointed out above: it’s not exactly a trick question.
Nor is it a surprise to anyone who actually pays attention with an open mind to the nature of politics in this country as well as taking the time to learn some history and acquire a decent understanding of human nature.
There was no sudden, magical disappearance of every racist in the country. They are still around. And they are still a vital part of the GOP electorate.
Here’s the question from the poll:
“Do you think interracial marriage should be legal or illegal?”
That first part, asking southern Republicans if they think, is obviously meant to confuse them and prejudice the results.
The key word was “history.” If the Democrats are more than willing to dredge of a Republican’s past, then why should the Democrats be exempt? Sen Byrd in his 2005 book Child of the Appalachian Coalfields. spoke fondly of his membership in the KKK. Was 2005 decades ago?
How are southern Democrats any different from southern Republicans?
“How are southern Democrats any different from southern Republicans?”
Uh, they’re Democrats?
That there’s a lot fewer of them? That the Civil Rights Act and the Southern Strategy turned a lot of southern Democrats into southern Republicans? Maybe there are reasons why the ones that are left hasn’t bolted for the Republican party? Perhaps they don’t share the view expressed by the Mississippi Republicans?
How serious were the people who responded? I remember a poll the sociology students took in the college of engineering when I was an undergraduate, which ended up with such interesting results such as 90% or so of the engineering students thought that not only had the moon landing been faked, but that the earth was actually flat.
It was suspected that some of the engineering students didn’t take the poll seriously …
If this was a real, scientific poll that was taken serious, the results are extremely bad. But it almost looks like joke results.
That first part, asking southern Republicans if they think, is obviously meant to confuse them and prejudice the results.
Also, it follows a question about the senate primaries. If there’s anything that sends out subliminal messages about interracial marriage and how to answer that you think they should be illegal, that’s it.
The most benign explanation I can think of is that they misheard the question and thought they were being asked about gay marriage (a question of greater contemporary importance). But I find it difficult to believe that more heard the question wrong than right. Or, even if they did, it says something else pretty negative about Mississippi Republicans.
Southern Hoosier, just out of curiosity, what’s your opinion on interracial marriage?
Opposed.
Not exactly a Democratic Party plank, even in the South.
It use to be, along with Jim Crow laws.
It use to be, along with Jim Crow laws.
Times change.
True, but people’s attitudes don’t. But I guess most politicians are so wishy-washy they can believe in anything as long as it gets them elected.
True, but people’s attitudes don’t.
Actually, they do.
Do they really? So why was Trent Lott ran out of office? Why did Fuzzy Zoeller lose his sponsors? Why were the Duke Lacrosse team lynched in the media, long after the were proven innocent? Why was Don Imus fired, no matter how he tried to apologize.
Nothing worse than an unrepentant raciest trying to prove everyone in the world is racist except themselves.
Prior to 1964 the Democrats were indeed the defenders of Jim Crow.
Then the Democrats switched sides. This despite the fact that LBJ knew and said that it would cost his party votes.
In other words, the Democrats did the right thing, even though they knew it would hurt them politically.
Then, along came Nixon with the “southern strategy” which was a play by the GOP to capture the racist vote. They did capture the racist vote and the once solid south became solid for the GOP.
In other words, the Republicans knowingly did the wrong thing in order to profit politically.
None of this is new or controversial, it is historical fact. Ask Joyner, he’s a political scientist.
> Sen Byrd in his 2005 book Child of the Appalachian Coalfields. spoke fondly of his membership in the KKK.
Umm. Sen Byrd is deceased. It’s 2011. But then, it is easy to understand why you don’t want to discuss the reality of what the GOP is in the year 2011.
No, I really don’t want to discuss the reality of what the GOP is in the year 2011. The GOP is afraid to take on Obama for fear that someone might call them racist. The GOP would rather loose to the Democrats rather than see a Tea Party win
I’m curious as to the source of this supposed information about Robert Byrd’s 2005 book, since I was unable to turn up a review. Maybe somebody has a link?
What I do find is this, from Wikipedia:
I’ve said it before and doubtless the south will give me reason to say it again-
Lincoln was an idiot.
A story that touches a bit on both Eddy’s comment (about mixed-race children) and the question of whether change is possible. My mother has always had some unfortunate views on race. When I was in high school and brought home a girl of Middle-Eastern descent, she pulled me into another room and asked why I hadn’t “warned” her. My first serious girlfriend had a name more commonly associated with blacks and so when I told Mom about her, you can guess what the first question out of her mouth.
My brother went on to marry a girl of Pakistani descent. Race was a complete non-issue and the only time it really came up was when Mom said that she said hopefully that maybe her future grandchildren will get her gorgeous brown skin. She doesn’t like her daughter-in-law, but it has more to do with her Californian roots than her Pakistani heritage. And when I told her about the woman who became my wife (and who also, interestingly enough, has a name more commonly associated with blacks), I answered the question (“she’s white”) before she asked it, to which she seemed utterly confused as to why that was relevant.
I really have no idea what changed. She uses some of the “old” terminology (though not the N-word), and every now and again there’s an offhand comment. But she’s gotten to the point where the cringe-inducing comments are more likely meant to be complimentary than rude (kind of Bidenesque, in a way). Ten or fifteen years ago, I never would have believed it.
The GOP is afraid to take on Obama for fear that someone might call them racist. The GOP would rather loose to the Democrats rather than see a Tea Party win
Yes, the GOP has been the most conciliatory party in all of human history for these last two yrs. Not one word has been said about the President that wasn’t respectful of the man & the office.
I won’t even try to analyze the second sentence I quoted.
There is only one race, sigh….
? then I guess this guy was too…
Yo Harry, and the rest of you Limbcoms, deal with it http://maafa21.com/ till you do say nothing ever again the like of racist or for the children, for THE LOVE OF GOD!!!!!!
That goes for all of you of the atheist/evolutionist/progressive/pragmatic religion also. Sick of it….
PPP actual got an e-mail from one of the poll’s respondents explaining themselves:
http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2011/04/argument-against-interracial-marriage.html
Something about dissing god’s plan I guess.
I believe that most of the attacks on Comrade Obama started after the 2011 election, when the Tea Party came to power. The freshmen congress have to fight both the Republican leadership and the Democrats.
Sen McCain practically campaigned for Obama in 2008 and fired one staffer that actually wanted to win the election.
Check out the crosstabs: the two age demographics that think it should be illegal are “over than 65” (no surprise) and “18-29.”
Jpe makes a good point. If you want to skew the poll to make people look more racist, go with an older demographic. You do this by timing your survey calls so that you’re more likely to catch retirees at home.
The other tricks are to frame the question so that the racist answer is the affirmative response. Not “Do you think interracial marriage should be legal?” but “Do you think interracial marriage should be illegal?”
Next, which might be the most important, is the set up. Before a question like this, the survey taker will read something like:
“The Center for Interracial Studies reports that children from mixed marriages are 12 times more likely to live in poverty, 15 times more likely to abused and 50 times more likely to be convicted of a violent crime as an adult.” “Do you think interracial marriage should be illegal?”
Why do pollsters do deceptive things like this?
To fool naïve people.
“I believe God made us a different color for a reason and should be honored by not marrying outside of the race that God picked for me, however the color of one’s skin does not make him/her better than another color.”
That’s right. John Boehner isn’t better or worse than anyone else, but he’s violating God’s Law by being married to a non-orange woman.
According to a PPP pollster in teh commetn section, PPP did ask the same question of mIssissippi democrats. The results will be released shortly.
You apologists are embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as the actual poll respondents. What a sad day to be from Mississippi and to be Republican. Fortunately, i am not the first, and am no longer the second. nevertheless, as an American, it saddens and sickens me to learn that such wrong-headed bigotry is still entrenched among such a sizable portion of our population.
Welll michael reynolds, I will apologize to you. Don’t get me wrong, I was more on your side than in opposition, but I really thought you were over the top.
I was wrong. You were right, on this one.
@jwest:
Legal vs Illegal isn’t framing the question.
If they timed the question then they will get a lot of old democrats too.
And then you claim that the survey taker used a setup, any proof for that? On the other hand, the setup says a lot about you…
Three postings in a row from Doug, all saying “here’s a poll that says bad things about Republicans!”
Nope, no theme here. No agenda here. Just a wild coincidence, I’m sure.
J.
Perhaps Doug is posting from a “crisis in conscience.”
I’d suggest the same crisis for you Jay, rather than say that it’s a “wild coincidence” that these results exist.
That, john, would mean that I give polls the slightest bit of weight or interest whatsoever. I have spent literally years ignoring them, and ain’t about to start now.
J.
From the poll I guess there’s no way to tell how much higher a percentage of Mississippi democrats think interracial marriage should be illegal.
JP:
Not to worry, I’ll be over the top on something else.
@Jay – “I have spent literally years ignoring them”
… don’t you think that reinforces stereotypes?
You know, Repubs as believers in a consensual, rather than objective, reality?
I love the fact that rather than deal with the truth the GOP apologists are concocting conspiracy theories.
It’s the fault of whoever took the poll. And if not then it’s Doug’s fault for posting it.
Riiiiight.
Just so long as no Republican ever takes an honest look at himself and his party.
I suspect Rodney that a good slug of Mississippi Dems _are_ interracial.
The GOP is afraid to take on Obama for fear that someone might call them racist.
In reviewing an article at “Political Headlines”, I must take exception to some of the things said about Doug Mataconis. For example:
“Doug Mataconis has long been a bitter, mean-spirited troll of all good and decent reformers within the GOP, and his deranged hatred for conservatives has diminished his mental faculties to the point that he’ll believe any lie that comes down, as long as it’s nasty about conservatives. But, what do we expect from a guy whose personal web page has become an obsessive shrine to Ron and Rand Paul?”
This is obviously over the top. Reasonable readers will agree that the last sentence should be toned down to read that Doug’s personal website has become mostly an obsessive shrine to Ron and Rand Paul.
Also, the author of this article ends with this rather testy paragraph:
“And when someone who claims to be a Republican unquestioningly repeats the results of this poll, which has the above obvious problems with it, and starts trying to lecture “these people” without even allowing for the possibility that the poll is biased, that person has to have his intelligence questioned. Only a complete fool believes everything he reads. Doug Mataconis is apparently that fool.”
Once again without knowing all the facts, this author places the blame on Doug’s intelligence and says that he apparently is a fool. Assumptions such as this are probably based more in anger than in logic. A more tempered statement would allow for the possibility that Doug is intelligent, but simply lacks integrity.
I don’t normally stick up for Doug like this, but to maintain a position as a Fair and Balanced commenter, I thought it was my duty to set the record straight.
Doug, you’re welcome.
http://www.politicalheadlines.info/of-a-certain-mississippi-poll-on-marriage-and-of-those-who-make-hay-of-it
@rodney dill:
There sure is, since, as already pointed out by Alanmt, they are going to release results for Mississippi Democrats too.
From the PP blog:
@PJ, which confirms there is no way to tell…. at this point in time.
You know who also violated God’s Law? Moses.
“Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite [Ethiopian] woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.” (Numbers 12:1) God then punishes Miriam by making her “leprous like snow.”
@rodney dill:
@Kylopod :
How about the state of Mississippi? (Or at least the The Department of Marine Resources.)
@PJ, Which again confirms what I said.
rodney, do you find “appeals to missing data” compelling? Seriously?
The other tricks are to frame the question so that the racist answer is the affirmative response. Not “Do you think interracial marriage should be legal?” but “Do you think interracial marriage should be illegal?”
We already told you what the question was. Twice. It wasn’t a yes/no question. The answers were legal, illegal, and don’t know.
It’s in the report.
So is the breakdown of respondents. 38% or more of every single age group said “illegal”.
If you’re going to be an expert on polling, the least you could do is read the damn report.
>How about the state of Mississippi? (Or at least the The Department of Marine Resources.)
No! The prohibition on eating shellfish actually appears in the Bible, and therefore cannot be considered God’s Law. Only something that doesn’t appear in the Bible–such as a prohibition on marriages between races–can be considered God’s Law. Capisce?
I only made one comment on it, the other two were to defend the correctness of my comment. I only made the initial comment to point out the missing side of the information. I actually expect the Democrat percentage against interracial marriage to be lower, I just reversed my statement to highlight that we don’t know that number at this point in time.
@rodney dill:
PPP has obviously polled voters in Mississippi. If they did it in one poll, and then chose to release the republican results first, then it won’t confirm what you said, which was this:
Since that would be false.
If they did two separate polls, then it’s obvious that the republican only poll would never have bits about the democrats. But if that’s the only thing you have left to debate on the subject, then you’ve lost. Badly.
@PJ, Since you obviously know the results then what are they? If not then there is no way to know them.
@PJ, I can’t lose, as I haven’t even take on side on what the results mean. I just highlighted one flaw in looking at only partial information.
jwest — Wow, that link is really persuasive. For instance, it informs us that a polling outfit that had nothing to do with this poll fudged some date a couple of years back. Pretty damning stuff there. Then it spends several thousands of words whining about how mean it is to ask this question and allow the people to reveal what hateful bigots they are.
You really showed us. Almost as much as Southern Hoosier, who appeared here to whine about the poll, and then admitted that he or she is opposed to interracial marriage.
Trumwill,
Sometimes in the face of pressing deadlines and the need to get critical information out to the public in a timely fashion, certain details are overlooked.
I’ve turned this matter over to the jwest ombudsman for review and expect that if a correction is warranted, it will appear on page D-68 within a few months.
Thank you for your continued readership.
I think PJ, that the best response to Rodney would have been just to quickly say “yeah, and the Dem numbers might be really low.” That suspends it until such time as data appears.
And of course the word “might” isn’t “should” or “probably will” or anything like that.
jwest’s link did provide some interesting information that I was entirely unaware of, namely “President Obama’s current leading opponent, Randall Terry,”. I guess I’ve fallen into that epistemic closure trap.
No, I really don’t want to discuss the reality of what the GOP is in the year 2011.
Yeah, we know. We know.
Numbers 12:1 – 12:13
First you say that nationwide the country is split evenly on same sex marriages.
Then you compare nationwide finding to just one states finding from your poll of “46% of these hardcore Republican” (The poll was taken not just of Republican but only the hard core ones).
Two question begged to be answered. !. How was the split in the state between hardcore Republican and conservative Democrats. 2. How do u look at yourself in the mirror knowing you on fairly put a black mark on a state that is part of the United States. Does it feel good or get you rich distorting the truth.
If you compare things you compare them. Your words make no sense at all.
I might just start voting republican.
Both Democrats(TM) and Republicans(TM) are woefully unaware of the hidden hand. That fact that either of you support any side, and are so entangled in this ‘rah-rah’ debate, just shows how far gone this country is.
Is interracial marriage a travesty which needs to be eliminated? Yes.
Are democrats retarded? Yes.
Are republicans retarded? Yes.
The fact that any one of you are supporting any government and giving any one party any legitimacy, whatsoever, is the scariest thing of all.
Politicians and newsmedia are the same thing….they aren’t human.
Is another civil war the only way out of this mess? Probably, given the way our nations are going down the drain, given the way you idiots continue to go back and forth without a clue of what’s really happening, given the way our beloved politicians continue to screw us up the aXX,. I’m so sick of hearing the BS on both sides. This isn’t working.
You guys all need a timeout and a “re-education.”