Are protests having impact?
The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests have been going on for two and a half months, and we wanted to know if you think they are accomplishing anything. In a Poll Position national scientific telephone survey we asked, what kind of impact do you think these protests are having? In an even divide, 34% said the protests are having a positive impact, 34% said they are having a negative impact, 26% said the OWS protests are having no impact at all.
Democrats and Republicans see the protests differently with 43% of Democrats saying they are having a positive impact, 26% choosing a negative impact and 21% seeing no impact at all. Republicans, 48% of them, say OWS is having a negative impact, 22% said the protests are having a positive impact and 27% see no impact at all from OWS protests. Among Independents, 39% say the protests are having a positive impact, 24% a negative one and 30% do not see any impact from the protests.
African-Americans and whites differ on the protests with 44% of African-Americans saying the protests are having a positive impact, 38% seeing a negative impact and 10% seeing no impact at all. Among whites, 31% see a positive impact, 36% think OWS is having a negative impact and 28% see no real impact from the protests.
Poll Position’s scientific telephone survey of 1,066 registered voters nationwide was conducted November 3, 2011 and has a margin of error of ±3%.
What do you think? Vote in our online companion poll and comment below.
The online companion poll in which you can vote provides unscientific results, meaning it’s a tally of participating Poll Position users, not a nationally representative sampling.
Poll Position is committed to transparency and upholding the highest professional standards in its polling, explaining why we provide you with the crosstabs of our scientific polls. Crosstabs provide a breakdown of survey participants by age, race, gender, and political affiliation. Here are the crosstabs for this poll: Poll Position Crosstabs-OWS Impact
You can learn more about our polling methodology here.
