When the left conducts polls, it’s not surprising to see how they can manipulate questions to obtain their desired results.
Atlantic staff writer Robinson Meyer on June 21 gushed how the Democratic Party has “become more interested” in pushing forward the Green New Deal (GND) advocated by Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). He brought up how a carbon tax was apparently no longer “climate policy’s hottest plan.”
Meyer referred to a June 2019 study conducted by YouGov and the “left-leaning” think tank Data for Progress. The poll surveyed 1,030 voters on the GND and climate policy.
Data for Progress’s homepage features policy goals such as “Medicare for all,” “a green job guarantee,” and “abolishing ICE.” These initiatives go far beyond “left-leaning.”
The poll asked, “Would you support or oppose a policy (either “levying a new tax on carbon pollution” or “providing for public investment in clean energy infrastructure and requiring carbon emissions reductions through regulation”) to reduce pollution and protect the environment?”
Note the emphasis on the goal “to reduce pollution and protect the environment.” The question was deliberately skewed to guilt-trip voters into supporting either policy.
The study found that while a majority of voters were in favor, a greater portion (59%) supported the public investment option than the carbon tax (50%). A smaller pool was likewise opposed to the former (25%) than the latter (31%).
Among the voters who identified as Democrats, the difference was even greater. By a 15% margin, they supported the public investment option (90%) over the carbon tax (75%).
The study cited how the voters were more likely to support climate intervention when it was “presented as government investment and regulation” than as a carbon tax. It concluded by claiming that voters preferred “a framework of public investment” more than “a market mechanism” to combat climate change. Yet the poll never included the latter option.
Of course, no mention was given that the GND would cost as much as $93 trillion and blow up the national debt, according to The Epoch Times.
Meyer summarized the study’s findings to describe the GND as “more popular - and less controversial - than a carbon tax.” He apparently missed the memo over how the plan generated enough opposition in Congress to fail a Senate vote three months earlier, and earned exactly zero votes in favor.
Just as one survey does not necessarily reflect the entire population’s views on climate policy, a study that deliberately glosses its words to favor the left’s climate agenda should not be taken as legitimate at all.
