60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll: December Edition

Welcome to the 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll for December. The 15th of this month will be the 220th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791. With protests happening all over the world, including here in the United States, every American should dust off their copy and review this grand document. It provides us with so much of what makes up our national character. The First Amendment alone secures for Americans the freedoms of religion, speech, and the press. It also provides for the right to peaceful assembly (ask the Occupiers) and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.

If ever there was a time for Americans to celebrate these rights it is now and remember the Bill of Rights guarantees your right to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus or whatever other holiday you may wish this month. So have a happy and joyous holiday season, and while we're at it, Happy New Year!

And now, the results...

The '80s and '90s win the "Best Decade to Live Through" award with 21 percent and 20 percent. They were decades of relatively high peace and prosperity and were helped by the "Peace Dividend" earned by the end of the Cold War. Next up with 18 percent were the idyllic 1950s followed by the '70s with 13 percent, the '60s with 11 percent and the 2000s with 10 percent. The World War II years got only three percent and the '30s received a "Depressing" one percent.

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Nearly eight out of 10 Americans have never considered changing their religion. Of those that have considered it, 11 percent changed and eight percent did not. The ethos of freedom of religion runs strong in America (thanks again First Amendment) and so too does our loyalty to the religion of our mothers and fathers.

Nearly three out four Americans say that it is not very or not at all important for them to see photographic evidence of the death of a famous or infamous person. Sixteen percent think it is somewhat important and only eight percent deem it to be very important. Americans have a "Sixth Sense" ("they can see dead people") about whether someone is really dead or not without having to see a picture of them. In fact last week was the first week that no one actually reported seeing Elvis. Do you think something happened to him?

Ever since Benjamin Franklin established the first lending library to promote the common good in 1731, public libraries have been a key to the upward mobility of many Americans. It is evident that Americans are now acquiring their books by other means. Only 15 percent say they go to their local library every week. Eighteen percent go about once a month, 31 percent use it once or twice a year and sadly 35 percent say they never utilize this rich resource. The advent of search engines and Kindles and the like have produced many great by-products. The decline in use of the public library system is not one them.

Three out of 10 Americans try to be "locavores" that is, those who buy and eat locally produced foods. Forty-six percent say they buy local when it is convenient to and 23 percent say it is not a priority. It all boils down to economics and climate. It can cost quite a bit more to acquire locally grown food. Also, it is difficult to grow fruit and vegetables in many areas during the cold winter months.

When it comes to marriage, most people (60 percent) would outsource their household chores if they could. The drudgery of cleaning, yard work and garbage duty far outweighs the "inconvenience" of holding long conversations (14 percent), taking the kids to school (nine percent) or connubial relations (four percent). Even in today's fast paced, not-enough-time-in-the-day world, those last three categories ought to be viewed as aspects of marriage to be cherished.

In a political version of fantasy football, the mythical matchup of President Obama and President George W. Bush ends with the sitting president winning with a plurality of 40 percent over the former president getting 31 percent (27 percent picked neither one). In 1992 Ross Perot helped Bill Clinton beat President Bush's father, George H. W., in a similar fashion. That time it was for real and it sounds like a strong rallying cry for a potential third party candidate in 2012. Any takers?

Thirty-one percent of Americans say they learned the least during their middle school years. The high school years were next with 27 percent, followed by elementary school with 18 percent and college with 11 percent. Not surprisingly, it appears that the teenage years are the hardest in which to learn. Changing bodies, the opposite sex, awkward growth spurts and hormonal imbalances create a lot of distractions. Thankfully there are the bookends of elementary school, which can provide a strong foundation, and the college years, providing what is hopefully a strong finish to the educational experience, for those students fortunate enough to attend.

If the United States decided to replace the bald eagle as our national symbol, the grizzly bear would maul the competition to replace it with a third of the vote. Next in line is the wild turkey with 16 percent which Benjamin Franklin (him again) declared in 1784 to be far more deserving of our support than the eagle by virtue of possessing a more honorable and moral courage. The moose and rattlesnake got eight percent each and the catfish caught six percent of the vote. Without being asked, 20 percent felt strongly enough about it to volunteer that we should just keep the bald eagle.

If something really did cost an arm or a leg, most people (47 percent) would pay with an arm. Forty percent would pay with a leg and 13 percent could not decide. People over the age of 45 were divided evenly as to which appendage they could most do without at just over 40 percent for each.

Forty-two percent of Americans believe that alternative medicine has the potential to cure minor ailments. Another 33 percent say that it can cure serious medical issues and 25 percent think that it has no beneficial effects or don't know. China and many other cultures around the world have been using herbal remedies for thousands of years. Hopefully as we evolve in the future, our openness to and knowledge of alternative medicines and their curative effects will help to improve our healthcare system.

This poll was conducted at the CBS News interviewing facility among a random sample of 1,033 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone Oct. 28 - 31, 2011. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard landline and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls. Read more about this poll.