Hmmmm. When given a one or the other choice, most Americans say the government should put less "emphasis on military efforts abroad" and more "emphasis on [unspecified] diplomatic and economic methods." Wow, that told me a lot.

They also want less immigration and less foreign trade.

Some clever person should come up with a name for this. Maybe something like "isolation" with an "ism" at the end. If perchance someone has already used that term, maybe stick a "neo" at the front.

I would hope the government is earning an F on protecting jobs. Sadly, we're not there yet.

I think Yankelovich has an essay setting out the main findings and their implications in the next essay of FA, no? due out in a few weeks? so maybe it'll be worth updating this at that point to include a link. And I think you're being just a bit overly jaded about the banality of the results. Yes, they're not exactly shocking. But as you say, the real interest will come from changes over time. And I think they make a useful contribution in highlighting the importance of perceived alternative policy options in driving whether the public's feelings will have any real impact. Thus, a big point on outsourcing is not just that people don't like it, but that they also seem to perceive it as kinda inevitable, and so aren't really about to punish politicians for not stopping it. That's worth mulling, no?

lc

I'm not sure I see anything in the attitudes reported here that deserves to be called schizophrenic. In particular the contradiction between Americans' unease at how their country is perceived in the Muslim world and their dissatisfaction at the high level of illegal immigration from Mexico escapes me.

The question about foreign students was unfortunate. Break that 41% out, and you would likely find a large number of people concerned about students from a small number of countries, and a small number of people concerned about students from most countries.

Regarding the last point, Onward Christian Soldiers! I do wonder if the ultra-religious support the current foreign policy course ONLY because they are Republicans and not because of the substance of the policy. That's not to deny that many fundamentalist Christians actually want warfare in the Middle East (to bring on the Rapture) but it seems likely that the religion connection is mediated entirely by party loyalty and nothing else. If a hawkish Democrat - say Biden or Lieberman - had been pursuing the same policies the religious connection would be much less because Christian extremists (especially white ones) tend not to vote Democrat.

These are the kind of respomses you get from people who get their news from newspapers (and MSM generally). Is there an echo in here?

I do wonder if the ultra-religious support the current foreign policy course ONLY because they are Republicans and not because of the substance of the policy.

Seems to me that it likely goes: the more religious you are, the more likely you are to be a Republican. And Republicans are more likely to be content with current U.S. foreign policy than are Democrats.

"These are the kind of respomses you get from people who get their news from newspapers"

I'm not sure if Lee was being funny intentionally or unintentionally, but either way he succeeded. presumably, one should care about the responses from those who don't read newspapers. yes, ignorance is bliss, war is peace, intelligent design is science. which century are we in again?

lc

And yet Americans continue to vote for Bush and
his kind who think everything can be solved by
military adventures....

I think these polls are crap...

"That's not to deny that many fundamentalist Christians actually want warfare in the Middle East (to bring on the Rapture)"

I find this statement utterly implausible, and a strawman, and spoken by someone who doesn't understand Fundamentalist Christians and is projecting his own uninformed stereotypes.

On the other hand, I personally don't understand Fundamentalist Christians myself. Do you have any evidence supporting this statement?

Steve

Is it time to begin talking about secular fundamentalists and that wing that can only be called secular extremists?

"Half of Americans give the U.S. a "D" or "F" grade on protecting American jobs from going overseas (and three in ten chose "F")."

Good! We should be failing miserably at preventing jobs from going overseas, in fact we shouldn't even be trying. We should be focused on helping to foster the creation of new kinds of jobs that fit the economy of today and tomorrow, a task which neither party seems to have the patience for.