Americans don't care about free trade, think Britain is greatest ally

[Cain]

Interesting results from the Tobin Project's sponsoring of a Yougov poll to American views on foreign policy.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~benv/files/poll%20responses%20by%20party%20ID.pdf

So far, we have learnt Americans would prefer a low growth world where America remained on top, rather than a high growth world where they are behind China, that more Americans think the economy is the most important factor in foreign policy, as opposed to military might, and that Britain is the US's most valuable ally, followed by Israel (or by Canada then Israel, among Democrats).

There are also some very disturbing answers to questions 25 and 64.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

No shock there.  Better to reign in hell, etc, etc.

And we've always loved the British.

[Junkenstein]

19 was a little worrying too. "They hate our values so they attack us"

Great study for highlighting inherent bias that comes once you pick a political label.

25 is insane. 53-ish% seriously think the world is more dangerous now the posturing over nukes and Russia is finished. THANKS FOX.

Lovely self-fulfilling prophecy on 35. 20% expect better relations with China in 20 years, 30% expect worse.  The numbers are almost inverse on the democrat/republican side. I'd guess to see a lot more negative stories about China over the next few years purely from the right-wing bias that the media loves. Everyone is going to love "Cold War #2 - This time you owe them money"

Q45- Around 50% think that the US must maintain a strong military force in the middle east to prevent future terrorist attacks. I'd call this naive but I would guess it to be more a combination of arrogance and ignorance.

Q47 - If the US got involved in Syria to prevent civillan deaths, how many US casualties are acceptable? 42% say no intervention if if the US suffered 0 casualties. That's a real puzzler. I'd love to be the guy that sent troops to war and every single one came back. It'd be a first for human history and would redeem the US considerably to the world. I guess Syrians don't look Aryan enough to bother about.

Q56 - To maintain current US military power, how much extra tax are you willing to pay? 50% say not a penny more. Around 50% previously agreed that it is important to maintain US standing regarding world position and influence(and bodies with guns)

Q58- HOLY FUCK. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. 2.5% support genocide.

40% describe religion as "Very important" 23% attend religious services at least once a week. 17% are full of shit.

I'll have a bit more of a read later. Good find Cain.

[E.O.T.]

IT'S ALL

          in number 4. less than half claim to have great interest in international concerns, and they're almost all exaggerating or lying. if there's anything shocking here, i'd say this poll makes it look as if there is any awareness whatsoever in the general public, who never read past the headlines and photos.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Its a very interesting survey... though I would love to see some correlation between the questions. For example 30% claim to be 'born again' or evangelical. Roughly 37% support or somewhat support the Tea Party... how many of that 30some percent are the same people? 24% say they have a close friend/family member in the military, 35% say they support cuts to the military... what's the crossover there? How many of the 15% that claimed to be libertarian also gave positive responses to military intervention in other countries?

Some of them were pleasantly surprising. Only 16% think the President has too much independent influence over foreign policy, for example. Less than 50% believe that the US gets attacked because terrorists hate our values... that's far less than I expected.

Some seem kind of confusing, like 'who is America's most important foreign ally'. I think it would depend on the situation. Turkey seems far more important in the Syria situation than the UK or Canada, for example. Over 50% think the Cold War alliances are valuable/important today, but over 50% feels that the US can't afford to maintain its commitments to defend its current allies.

I think overall, it seems to support the idea that many Americans simply don't have a cohesive understanding of what's going on. There seem to be knee jerk responses to military questions, tax questions, alliance questions... even if those responses are incongruous.

As for the questions with the scary responses... 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I find it interesting that where Democrats and Republicans differ, Independents tend to lean Democratic.

[Kai]

The Democrat polls seem to be closer to reality than the Republican ones. Or is it just that my understanding of reality is twisted as well? 

[East Coast Hustle]

I don't think Democrats are any closer to reality than Republicans, but that's not exactly the same thing as what you're asking. I think alot of people who think both parties are totally fucked tend to end up leaning towards the Democrats as the lesser of two evils.

[Cain]

The polls certainly suggest that most independent voters agree with the Democrats more than they do the Republicans.