A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.
Following the fall of the government in Tunisia tension spread to Egypt culminating in demonstrations against the ruling party of President Mubarak on Jan 25th, 2011. On Jan 27th Egyptian opposition figure and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei returned to Cairo, promising to join the demonstrators.
A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.
Should the UN be reformed to give it the authority to quickly and decisively arrest leaders (such as Mr. Gbagbo in Cote d’Ivorie, and others who commit crimes against Humanity, or who violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of other international laws)?
A new Finance/Economy poll has been created.
Chinese President Hu Jintao makes a state visit to the United States this week. Many observers believe the 21st century belongs to China, which will take its place alongside America as a world superpower. Skeptics believe China’s prospects are overblown; they say the vast majority of China’s people still live in poverty, it has an aging population that the younger people will struggle to support, and a severe gender imbalance, along with environmental issues, rampant corruption, a fear of openness, and a weak military.
There is no uniform definition of superpower, but most writers’ who try to define it include a growing, technologically advanced economy, a military as powerful as any other, and a unified and thriving populace. Can China achieve each of these in the 21st century?
Minxin Pei, a China specialist at Claremont McKenna College in California and a director at the Carnegie Endowment, makes the bearish case in an article for The Diplomat. He points to a large portion of the population living in poor villages, and further predicts that “the likelihood that China’s growth will slow down significantly in the next two decades is real and even substantial.” He points primarily to China as an ageing society, due to its one child per family policy.
China’s bulls point to an economy that has surged 90-fold since 1978, recently passed Japan’s to become the second largest in the world, and was recently projected to surpass the U.S. economy by 2020.
A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.
The tragic shooting in Arizona of Congresswoman Giffords and others attending a community event has unleashed an outpouring of sympathy and calls for respect and reconciliation, from both sides of the political aisle, and from around the world, to an extent not seen since 9/11. Congress has delayed all action for one week, including a controversial vote to repeal the healthcare reform act. Will this tragedy lead to long-lasting civility in politics?
Like most people we at VoteGlobal were shocked to hear of this assination attempt. The whole reason we champion democracy is because we believe universal democracy can make the world a more peaceful place and in a well functioning democracy a myriad of competing and hotly held views can be reconciled without this type of violence. As Obama said “…this is more than a tragedy for those involved. It is a tragedy for Arizona and a tragedy for our entire country” In fact it is an attack on the democratic process itself.
In response to the tragedy we have created two new polls. The first is entitled “Will Palin suffer serious political damage from the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords?”
In the 2010 mid-term elections Sarah Palin released a map of House Democrats “targeted” by Palin. Gabrielle Giffords appeared on the map. The map controversially used actual target markers on locations these Democrats lived and listed their names. Within a few hours of loading the poll it had received some 500 votes making it the hottest poll since our “Israel Raid on Gaza Flotilla” poll
Sarah Palin posted a statement to her Facebook page offering condolences to the Giffords and all affected.
The second new poll is entitled “Will the shooting in Arizona change the tone of politics in America for years to come?”
The shooting has also caused renewed interest in an older poll “Is the right to bear arms – open carried other otherwise – still applicable in the U.S. Should there be more stringent laws regulating firearms ownership and sales?”
It will also be interesting to track what effect this has on the polls “Do you support Sarah Palin as GOP nominee for Presidential candidate in 2012?” and “2012 Election, your GOP choice?”
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