Here's some information that doesn't exactly scream "Mandate" for the Bush campaign. The First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University and the American Journalism Review published their annual State of the First Amendment survey yesterday. It shows, not surprisingly, that the American people seem in less of panic about the War on Terrorism than they were immediately after 9/11, and in more of a mood to question what their government is telling them. According to the press release about the poll:
"The 2004 survey found that just 30 percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement, ‘The First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees,’ with 65 percent disagreeing. The nation was split evenly, 49 percent to 49 percent, on that same question two years ago, in the survey following the ‘9/11’ attacks,” said Gene Policinski, acting director of the First Amendment Center.
This bodes poorly for general attitude of Bush Republicans these days toward freedom of speech, which is, basically, that you're mostly free to speak only if you don't compain about the Bush Administration.
Another characteristic of President Bush's White House is its tendency toward secrecy. They really would prefer we go on with our lives and leave the complicated stuff to smart people like Paul Wolfowitz. Here, too, the Bushies seem to be wearing out their welcome:
50% said they believe Americans have too little access to information about the federal government’s efforts to combat terrorism — up from 40% in 2002.
In case they get desperate on the campaign trail, they should note that 53% of those polled were against passing an amendment to ban flag burning.
If you want to see the whole poll, the pdf is here.
I don't know about you all, but I have never burned a flag, and see no reason to do so. Nevertheless, the day that flag burning becomes illegal, I will burn a flag in protest.
Posted by: flag burning | 12/13/2004 at 09:40 PM