The Power of the Ignorant Bloc
ignorant adj. lacking knowledge in a particular area or matter.
As the crowds in front of the state capitol in Madison go home, the media attention on public employee collective bargaining has shifted to the rest of the country. And when you want to know what the rest of the country thinks, you poll. Much of today’s coverage deals with the cognitive dissonance resulting from a USA Today/Gallup poll showing 61% of Americans would “oppose a law in your state taking away some collective bargaining rights of most public unions, including the state teachers union.”
The results were contrary to those reached by a Rasmussen poll a few days earlier, leading to the inevitable, unproductive commentary on polling itself, and who has it “right.”
My take is that all the polls are accurate, in terms of reflecting the actual responses of a statistically representative group of actual people. Holding conflicting positions at the same time is as American as Vespucci. During last year’s health care reform debate, it was Republicans trying to stall a Democratic bill, and Democrats were the ones citing their electoral victory as a mandate. Now the sides are reversed.
Only John Podhoretz of Commentary magazine asks the correct question: “How many people whom Gallup polled actually know what is meant, in public-policy terms, by the words ‘collective bargaining rights’?”
With more than 93 percent of our private workforce non-union, is there any reason to believe they even know what collective bargaining is? If you think I’m overstating the situation, check out today’s Yahoo News story, “What is a labor union?”
This phenomenon isn’t unique to labor issues. Past polling has shown us that Americans don’t know much about charter schools, the No Child Left Behind Act, teacher pay and education spending. This may be unfortunate, but it’s also a fact of life, since we don’t test voters on Election Day. It’s also not a reflection of education. We all fall into the ignorant bloc on one or more issues. I know very little about immigration policy. If I were polled on it, my answers might not seem too coherent to someone more knowledgeable.
Voter ignorance of particular public policy issues doesn’t redound to the benefit of either side. Unions can claim that voters don’t know about the benefits of organized labor, but opponents can claim they don’t know about the costs.
What we’re left with, then, is both sides trying to gain the support of this bloc through selective information – or propaganda, to be less charitable.
The winner of this long-overdue debate about public sector collective bargaining will be the one who better sways the bulk of the ignorant bloc to its side. So regardless of the votes in the legislature, or who holds the governor’s office, or the rock-solid support of the base, I would never, ever, count out the teachers’ unions when it comes to such an existential battle.
February 23rd, 2011 at 17:32
[...] thinks the winner will be the side that sways the “ignorant bloc” – and, like Podhoretz, he thinks it’s significant that Yahoo! has to publish an article [...]
February 23rd, 2011 at 20:28
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Chan Stroman, Coopmike48. Coopmike48 said: The Power of the Ignorant Bloc | Intercepts – http://goo.gl/TmBiF [...]
February 28th, 2011 at 22:49
This brings up a valid point about the ignorance of the bulk of the population that may or may not be involved with these polls. Maybe when these polls are conducted, poeple should be briefed on the issue if they’re not familiar enough with the facts to have a valid opinion. However, I guess this would reiterate the point of swaying the public opinion through selective information depending on how the individuals that are interacting with the public about the issue personally feel about it.