Misleading Interpretation of Supreme Court Gallup Poll

According to this new poll from Gallup, 42% of Americans want President Obama to pick a justice who will make the court more “conservative” than it is now while only 27% want him to pick someone who would make the court more liberal.

You could interpret this to say that Americans want Obama to select a “conservative” for the court (and that is how Gallup themselves frame the poll results) but that is completely ignoring the 24% who want to keep the balance “how it is now.”

Considering that the justice Obama’s pick will be replacing is considered by many observers to be the most liberal justice on the court (John Paul Stevens) now that means those 24% who want to keep the balance as is must support Obama picking someone at least as liberal as him. When combined with the 27% who want someone who is more liberal than Stevens that makes for a total of 51% who want Obama to pick a liberal as his nominee (compared to the 42% who want him to pick a conservative.)

I think if the average American really paid attention to what kind of “conservative” decisions the Court has been making (such as the idea that “money is free speech” so corporations can have unlimited influence on political campaigns and the idea that “corporations are people”) that there would be even more support for picking more liberal justices.

People need to understand that what “conservative” in America really means in 2010 is “on the side of big business and against average Americans.”

And to anyone who says that voting doesn’t matter and that there’s “no difference” please consider the situation we would be in now if John McCain had won in 2008! The court would be moving towards a balance of 7 pro corporate justices vs 2 pro American justices. Elections matter! And not just the Presidential elections. Midterms matter too.

The more pro corporate power politicians (“conservatives”) there are in the House & the Senate the harder it will be to get anything positive done in this country (including getting pro-American justices onto the Supreme Court.)

It’s incredibly important for the future of this country that the “Republican Tea Party” be defeated this November. Get registered. Vote.