Some Good, Some Odd Beliefs

I was looking at the latest Fox News Opinion Poll today and saw some very good, but also some incongruous beliefs held by Americans.

First, the most encouraging belief is that most Americans (60%) believe that "No matter what the outcome, the court should follow what the Framers meant when they wrote the Constitution.", while only 26% agreed with "If necessary, the court should ignore what the Framers meant to reach the outcome it feels is appropriate for today." 8% believed in some mix of these two interpretations of the Constitution. Surprisingly, more Democrats agreed (44%) with the Framers' intent than with the felt appropriate for today interpretation. Republicans agree with the Framers predominantly (78%), while 61% of independents went with the Framers.

Now the complete brain warp:

• 69% of the voters in the Presidential Election voted for Obama who does not believe in interpreting the Constitution as the Framers intended it to be interpreted. The only way this should be possible is if Obama did not win many of the Democrat votes in the today's interpretation category, but did win pretty much all the Independent vote, but only those who believe in the Framers' interpretation. Of course, we know this is not the case, so here is a complete disconnect on this most critical issue between what the voters believe in and how they voted.
• 42% believed Hilary Clinton would make a good Supreme Court Justice. This cannot be squared with the 60% belief in the Framers interpretation of the Constitution.
• 32% believe Al Gore would be a good Justice. This one can be mathematically squared with the 60% belief in the Framers intent, but in practice, it is clear that it is not so.

Clearly, the people have no idea at all about what major politicians think about the Constitution, have no ability to judge their actions for their Constitutionality, and/or have no idea what the intent of the Framers of the Constitution was!

On the good side again, only 1% believed a woman should be disqualified to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court because she was a woman, only 2% believed a minority member was disqualified to serve, and only 17% believed a homosexual was disqualified.

It turns out that Independents are the people who believe that most other Americans are less happy than Democrats and Republicans think they are. But, when asked how happy they are themselves, Independents are almost as happy as Republicans. Neither of them are anywhere near as happy as the power wheedlers are. The Democrats are having a heyday apparently.