The other day, researchers for the Winthrop Poll, a survey run by the social and behavioral research lab at Winthrop University in South Carolina, released their latest data. The findings are, well, interesting.
No one should be surprised that the economy was the top concern among the 11 Southern states surveyed. The same could be said for the fact that nearly 40 percent of those polled were worried that they might lose their jobs. Health care and high rates of unemployment were next on the list.
Political parties should take note that when assigning blame for the current financial crisis, those Southerners who Winthrop polled split the blame equally. They pointed fingers at the banking and financial industry and consumers who took on too much debt, and also at big business for making poor management decisions.
Democrats are now being credited with saving the banks and financial institutions, although it was President Bush who started that ball rolling. Those same Democrats need to take note because they are being criticized for helping Wall Street while ignoring Main Street, a popular Washington cliche.
Republicans had best be careful; if not, their opposition to tighter regulations of the credit-card industry and other credit agencies may be seen as a willingness to allow unregulated financial institutions to crash the economy — again.
However, the poll's most significant finding may be a general feeling among Southerners that the government is not doing enough to break the recession. Specifically, more than 70 percent of those polled feel the government should do more to create jobs, and more than 60 percent feel Washington should come to the aid of states in financial trouble.
As one would expect, Democrats were more strongly in favor of government action, but independents, whose votes Republicans are courting, also lined up supporting a more active government. Republicans were opposed, but narrowly.
So, taking these and other findings together, what does the Winthrop poll reveal?
President Obama came out well. Though the survey broke along partisan lines, 51 percent of white males said he "cared for people like me."
Despite all the information and disinformation circulating about health-care reform, more than a quarter of respondents had formed no opinion on the issue, an ambivalence that surprised pollsters.
To find Southerners in favor of more government action should trouble the conservatives that Dixie sends to represent it in Washington. However, the form of action those polled want — job creation as opposed to stimuli pumped in at the top — has not been at the top of either party's agenda.
Keep in mind that these are Southerners who were polled, and Southern opinions generally veer to the right of the rest of the nation. Democrats and Republicans both should take note of what researchers at Winthrop have found.
