This sh*t is 
Posted on 11/17/2005 7:41:55 AM PST by GeneD
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The public's belief that the United States should mind its own business internationally has reached levels not seen since after the Cold War ended more than a decade ago, a poll found.
Opinion leaders from various parts of society also are less likely to feel the U.S. should be the most assertive of the leading nations, according to the poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The poll, sponsored this year by Pew and the Council on Foreign Relations, has been conducted by Pew every four years since 1993.
Anxiety about the war in Iraq is likely a big reason for the shift in attitudes.
"What's striking is the common thread, both the opinion leaders favoring a less assertive role for the United States and the public's isolationist views," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. "This particular period of time marks a transition from the post-9/11 era."
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the public's attention to international affairs spiked upward and their worries tilted sharply toward national security and defending against terrorists.
The new Pew poll found that 42 percent of the public said the United States should "mind its own business internationally" _ up from 30 percent who felt that way in 2002 and comparable to the mid-1970s, after Vietnam, and the early 1990s, after the Cold War ended.
Among the poll's other findings:
-- The influential Americans were inclined to think spreading democracy around the Middle East is a good idea, but doubt it will work.
-- Both opinion leaders and the public were inclined to view China as a potential problem, but not as an adversary of the United States. In fact many opinion leaders see China as a potential ally in the future.
-- The public was more likely to say the United States should remain the only superpower, but leaders in the fields of religion, academics and science were inclined to say it is OK if another country becomes as powerful as the United States.
The poll of 2,006 adults was conducted from Oct. 12-24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. The poll of 520 men and women who are leaders from the news media, foreign affairs, academics, security, the military, religion, science and state and local government was done both by telephone and online from Sept. 5-Oct. 31.
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On the Net:
Pew Research Center -- http://www.people-press.org
Not that the elitists would ever apply such a term to themselves.
Social security is going bankrupt. Medicare is bankrupt. But on the other hand, nothing is going to change on those scores anyway.
Ok, I'll bite....WTF is an opinion leader? A rat that thinks, as always, that they know what's best?
"but leaders in the fields of religion, academics and science were inclined to say it is OK if another country becomes as powerful as the United States. "
Leaders my a$$. Left wing freaks in academia is more like it. ROTF.........
Opinion Leaders = Progressives = Liberals = Communists = Democrats......repeat as necessary......
Plus the balance of payments deficit is over the moon, spending is out of control, inflation is severe (although not reflected in official figures), and the housing bubble is bound to pop.
Election fraud is worse every year, illegal immigration is out of control, Homeland Security is a monstrous bureaucratic failure, and the Republican Party is falling apart.
The only problem is, if we turn out attention to domestic concerns, congress can only be trusted to make things worse.
Maybe it's time for another war. Or maybe two wars. How about Iran and Syria?
Actually the "multipolar" world balance of power model is popular both at Foggy Bottom (especially holdovers from Madeline Abright's tenure)....as well as earnestly held to be preferable among "globalists" such as the Clintons, the UN and the French.
I was afraid you'd say that.
The only real solution I can see is to break the country up into a bunch of little countries. When you get a government this big, it's too easy to hide the fraud in the budget.
No doubt.
This sh*t is
Consider the source of this poll it is Pee Yew Research with Madeline Not So Bright in charge.
Another poll?
I give up!
Now, let's see, when was the last time "isolationism" worked for the United States?
Hmmm. Can't think of one instance.
Oh well.
Next!
That isolationism thing worked real well for us in the 1930's.
GMTA
Maybe it's a "screw you" to a world filled with anti-american sentiment.
Maybe it's time for another revolution, against our own government.
We should get to see the polling questions on this. There's no way we will take a pollster's results at face value
The people most anxious about the war are liberal Democrats whose focus is on social engineering, and have no idea how to run a war. The quicker the war is over the quicker liberals can get back to running people's lives without the distraction of Iraq.
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