Just took a phone poll by astroturf group 'Americans for Prosperity'

[Populist_Prole]

What a bunch of sleazebags, though I expect that from any RW think tank or astroturfers. Pollster was young, punkish, not very professional. Lots of loud raucous background noise too.

The first question was where am I politically on a scale of 1 through 9, with 1 being "very liberal", 5 being moderate, and 9 being "conservative". I would have said 3, but thinking this was a weed-out poll ending litmus test, and I wanted to throw a monkey wrench in their poll numbers, I said "5....moderate"

2nd question was "Do you uhh....like Obamacare?" My reply was Yes

3rd question was whether I thought "Americans" were taxed enough. I replied, deadpan but firmly "Which americans....what end of the economic scale?" Pollster got a bit flustered/annoyed "Just whether you think Americans are taxed enough". Fuck that shit, I know how they're trying to spin this for an end game, and so I said yes, they need to be taxed more.

4th question was "Do you think the government should increase spending, need more revenue?". Another spin question. I said yes, and I mean it too.

I wanted so much to tell them what I really thought of them, and to call them out on their spin BS, but I figured they'd just discount my poll answers and my desire was to blow a hole in their aim to present the population as RW.

Like I said, a bunch of sleazebags.

[lunasun]

1. I said the same thing and the guy repeated the last question as if I answered wrong !

Wrong answer ?
Better than all the sleazy junkmail they finance

[annabanana]

2. Sadly, the actual pollster was prob a minimum wage worker

who had no idea he was conducting a push poll. And almost certainly didn't know who was paying for it.

[yardwork]

3. That was a push poll. The purpose is to convince you of their positions.

They probably won't even compile the data.

They're often much worse, with questions filled with lies designed to get you riled up and on their side.

A classic example from the Cold War era was, "Do you support unilateral nuclear disarmament, even though the Soviets always lie?"

A contemporary version might be, "Do you support Obama's deal with Iran, even though he's a socialist Muslim and Iran wants to nuke us?"

[Populist_Prole]

4. I've had push polls before, but they generally tried to sow doubt in a candidate

As in, "If you were to hear that Dexter Schlumpenburg bit the head off your yellow lab, would you be less likely to vote for him?" or somesuch thing.

This poll was worded so that anyone other than a liberal hack ( not that there's anything wrong with that ) or someone trying to throw their poll numbers ( me ) would answer in a way to show the takers having a conservative position. I would imagine polling data that didn't reflect the AFP desired "correct" answers could very well not be compiled.

[csziggy]

7. The last polling call I got was on the Iran agreement

The first question was if I thought Iran should have nuclear weapons. My response was that no one should have nuclear weapons. The second question was phrased in a way that pushed for an answer disapproving of the Iran agreement. I told the guy that I thought the agreement under consideration (this was a month or more ago) was great and is our best chance of keeping Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

That flustered the guy a lot. He kind of stuttered for a minute, asked the same question slightly re-phrased and I gave him the same response slightly more emphatic. He hung up. I suspect none of my responses were included in their "poll."

[Tom_Foolery]

5. I had that happen once...

The guy didn't like my answers, so he hung up on me.

[Scuba]

6. Many (most?) polls are designed to influence opinion, not measure it.

[davidpdx]

8. Given the group, I would have thought they would have hung up on your after you said

you liked Obamacare. lol