More Poll Dancing Tricks in Los Angeles Times

There is no doubt that California's population centers, the counties of San Francisco and Los Angeles, are heavily influenced by the Left in general, and that includes marriage neutering advocates. But a new Los Angeles Times/USC poll has some flaws - or at least the way the paper is reporting about its own poll is misleading. Cathleen Decker has the story. Early in the piece, we get this:

Their support for same-sex marriage outnumbered that opposing any legal recognition by more than 3 to 1.

To the casual reader, that sounds so dramatic, as if those who support Proposition 8 are now outnumbered 3 to 1. But the important wording is "opposing any legal recognition". California currently has a domestic partnership law for same-sex couples, and California law treats domestic partners the same as married spouses. How many people answering the poll knew that? Yes, a great many people in California who recognize that marriage unites a bride and a groom do not oppose domestic partnerships, or would be fine with some other form of civil unions for same-sex couples.

You have to go further into the artcle to get more explanation:

Asked their views on same-sex relationships, for example, 49% of California voters backed the [neutering of] marriage, 29% favored civil unions and 15% said there should be no legal recognition at all. Among nonpartisans, support for same-sex marriage rose to 54%.

Nonpartisans? Why didn't they list what Democrats - especially the African American and the ever-so-important Latino voters the pollsters are so obsessed with - think? Anyway, I'd still like to see the result of this poll.

But what do you expect when the article has lines like this one:

When asked whether government regulation of businesses protected the public or caused more harm than good, Californians defended regulation by a 15-point margin.

"Government regulation of businesses" is so vague as to be meaningless. Yes, most people, including many people identifying as libertarians support some government regulation of some businesses. But what about specifics? I'm surprised the poll didn't ask:

"Do you:

A. Favor same-sex marriage

B. Want to personally carry out public stoning of gays and lesbians.

Pick one."

The article then goes on to cite fauxmentum:

Among voters under age 30, [neutering] marriage was backed by 64%, 15 points higher than among votes overall.

Again, a lot of these people will think differently once they have married and have children of their own, and more experience with life in general. We should help them in their understanding by making our case. I'd say it is good news, given the marriage neutering advocates' control of the state legislature, academia, and media, that 36% of younger voters have retained the understanding that marriage unites a bride and a groom. We need to let more of them know that it is okay to affirm the obvious.