The 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll
As Americans prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July and the many freedoms that we enjoy in our country, the 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll is ready to begin the second half of Anno Domini 2010 with some thought provoking questions about the state of our nation. We start with some simple questions with some not so simple answers. The results please:
As the ninth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Osama bin Laden still strikes the most fear in 41 percent of American hearts. North Korea's Kim Jong Il, 20 percent, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 17 percent, who despite sanctions are both thought by some to possess itchy trigger fingers were next. Venezuelan strong man Hugo Chavez, flush with petro dollar bravado, brings up the rear with seven percent.
Americans like to buy American when they can and 38 percent like to eat American when they dine out. The question is just what is American food? Burgers, steaks, fried chicken, seafood? Our melting pot of a country is comprised of an enormous variety of foods both regionally and ethnically, a big tent to say the least. Always popular Italian cuisine was next with 26 percent, while Mexican 19 percent and Chinese 13 percent have plenty of fans as well.
Only 19 percent of our fellow countrymen would allow a reality TV camera crew into their home for a so called once in a lifetime opportunity; 78 percent aren't "desperate" enough to allow this invasion of their privacy. Could this disaffection be a harbinger of the beginning of the end of the "reality TV" era? Or is it a reality that lots of people will still be glad to watch the human train wrecks that reality TV offers as long as it's not themselves that are being gawked at?
Only 63 percent of those Americans surveyed think that our sitting president is serving in the office legally. Is it the success of the "right wing conspiracy" or failure of our academic instruction in civics and government that would lead 24 percent of respondents into believing Barack Obama was born in another country, and another 13 percent to be apparently unaware that the U.S. Constitution requires that the president of the United States be a "natural born citizen"?
Only a quarter of the Americans queried feel compelled to send BP a message by voting with their feet (or rather gas tanks). It looks like the remaining 70 percent of Americans will continue to base their gas purchases on convenience and price. It appears to be a cautionary tale that we've already experienced with our economy. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.
Two thirds of Americans subscribe to the Christian orthodoxy that says we all go to either Heaven, Purgatory or Hell (Hey, what the hell ever happened to Limbo?). Thirteen percent think that the fade to black is all she wrote. Another 13 percent say we either enter into another dimension or are reborn on Earth. Only two percent think that we become ghosts. Bad news for mediums and ghostbusters.
Picasso 29 percent, Rockwell 26 percent and Van Gogh 25 percent resoundingly beat O'Keefe with five percent, Kahlo with five percent and Pollock two percent. It would be nice if it was simply the artist's artistic ability and excellence that factored into everyone's decision. But in these economically trying times, some of the respondents must have thought that it would also be nice to have several million dollars "hanging around" the house just in case.
Forty four percent give American hero and sports legend Lance Armstrong the benefit of the doubt. Thirty five percent don't and 21 percent don't know. It's a sad epitaph to the "steroid era" where many good people who did things the right way were presumed guilty until proven innocent. Only Lance knows for sure, and although cycling has among the most stringent testing programs of any sport, there are still skeptics who think there is always a way around a test. Americans seem to be split into two camps, the doubters and the benefit of the doubters. It's McCarthyism on steroids. It's time to give everyone a fresh start. Now.
Well at least one winning choice still has Apple in its name: 23 percent voted for "as American as Apple iPods", a symbol of American ingenuity. Another 23 percent gave the nod to NASCAR, emblematic of our nation's love affair with the automobile. Twenty one percent think cheeseburgers are an all-American icon while only ten percent picked the SUV and eight percent chose going to rehab.
Too bad there wasn't an "all of the above" option: 43 percent of those surveyed say they would love to be able to eat anything they want with no negative effect on their health so bring on the trans fats, high fructose corn syrup and those aforementioned all American triple bacon cheeseburgers. Seventeen percent would opt for never exercising, and ten percent each would get a great tan and then have precaution less coitus. The suave cocktail party set from the 1960s would be amazed and aghast that a total of only 13 percent would choose unlimited smoking and drinking. The times, they are a changin'.
The last question notwithstanding, have a safe and healthy July!