U.S. Voters Say Snowden Is Whistle-Blower, Not Traitor, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Big Shift On Civil Liberties vs. Counter-Terrorism
Econintersect: There has been a massive shift in public opinion about the efforts of the U.S. government to combat terrorism. In the latest national poll by Quinnipiac University, voters say by a 45-40% margin that government actions have gone too far. Just 3 1/2 years ago the opinion was just the opposite; 63-25% said that the government had not gone far enough.
In the same poll the margin was 55-34% seeing Edward Snowden as a whistleblower rather than a traitor.
The opinions about Snowden were fairly independent of political party association, education level or household income. Only one demographic factor did show a significant effect; that was age, with support for Snowden declining with the increasing age of the respondents.
On personal privacy issues, there was a big gender disparity: men felt strongly that there was too much intrusion into Americans’ personal privacy (58-39%) while women were evenly divided (47-49%).
There were also ethnic differences, with whites saying there was too much intrusion (54-43%) while blacks (48-47%) and hispanics ( 58-39%) felt that there was not too much.
The poll does not ask questions to determine whether opinions about anti-terrorism measures have helped shape the opinion regarding Snowden or whether the Snowden case has been a singularity that shifted opinions about security programs.
Two weeks ago the results of a Pew poll (GEI News) showed a narrower level of support for Snowden as a whistleblower serving public interest rather than harming it (49-44%). But the same poll favored prosecution by 54-38%. Quinnipiac did not ask about prosecution.
In news stories that were published after both polls, Snowden has insisted that all information on his four laptop computers has been kept secure and this have been no leaks to the governments of China or Russia (or anyone else). This was summarized today (10 June 2013) by The Guardian. This is contrary to speculation published from anonymous expert sources by The New York Times, The Washington Post and others to the effect that they (anonymous experts) “believed” that Chinese government officials had “drained” the contents of Snowden’s computers when he passed through Hong Kong.
The demographic summary for the survey:
Click below for larger image.
The following is the full press release by Quinnipiac University:
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Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp
Gone too far 45% 41% 43% 49% 54% 36% 46% 35% 37%
Not gone far enough 40 46 42 36 34 47 39 52 54
DK/NA 15 13 15 15 12 17 15 12 10
WHITE..............................................
COLLEGE DEG BornAgnEv Mltry
Yes No Prot Cath Men Wom Yes No HsHld
Gone too far 50% 44% 39% 44% 55% 37% 42% 45% 44%
Not gone far enough 34 41 46 42 33 45 43 41 43
DK/NA 16 15 15 14 12 18 15 14 12
COLLEGE DEG ANNUAL HSHOLD INC AGE IN YRS..............
Yes No <50K 50-100 >100K 18-29 30-44 45-64 65+
Gone too far 48% 43% 43% 46% 50% 58% 52% 44% 32%
Not gone far enough 35 43 43 41 38 33 33 41 52
DK/NA 16 14 14 13 13 9 15 15 16
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Jul 10 Jan 14
2013 2010
Gone too far 45 25
Not gone far enough 40 63
DK/NA 15 12
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Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp
Support 51% 49% 58% 48% 48% 54% 51% 55% 55%
Oppose 45 45 37 50 49 41 45 40 40
DK/NA 4 5 5 2 4 5 4 5 6
WHITE..............................................
COLLEGE DEG BornAgnEv Mltry
Yes No Prot Cath Men Wom Yes No HsHld
Support 54% 49% 51% 57% 47% 55% 47% 54% 47%
Oppose 42 47 44 40 50 41 49 42 49
DK/NA 4 4 5 2 3 5 4 4 4
COLLEGE DEG ANNUAL HSHOLD INC AGE IN YRS..............
Yes No <50K 50-100 >100K 18-29 30-44 45-64 65+
Support 55% 49% 49% 51% 58% 47% 47% 54% 52%
Oppose 41 46 46 46 39 50 49 43 40
DK/NA 4 5 5 3 3 3 4 4 7
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Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp
Yes 54% 55% 64% 48% 52% 57% 51% 66% 67%
No 40 41 31 46 45 36 43 28 29
DK/NA 5 4 6 5 3 7 5 5 4
WHITE..............................................
COLLEGE DEG BornAgnEv Mltry
Yes No Prot Cath Men Wom Yes No HsHld
Yes 50% 52% 55% 53% 49% 54% 49% 55% 53%
No 45 42 40 41 47 39 46 39 42
DK/NA 5 6 5 6 4 7 5 5 5
COLLEGE DEG ANNUAL HSHOLD INC AGE IN YRS..............
Yes No <50K 50-100 >100K 18-29 30-44 45-64 65+
Yes 53% 55% 56% 50% 57% 50% 48% 57% 60%
No 43 39 38 47 39 46 51 36 33
DK/NA 5 5 6 4 4 5 1 7 7
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Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp
Yes 53% 56% 40% 60% 58% 47% 54% 47% 39%
No 44 42 56 38 39 49 43 48 58
DK/NA 3 2 4 2 2 4 3 6 3
WHITE..............................................
COLLEGE DEG BornAgnEv Mltry
Yes No Prot Cath Men Wom Yes No HsHld
Yes 52% 55% 55% 49% 60% 48% 61% 50% 57%
No 44 42 42 49 38 48 37 48 39
DK/NA 4 2 3 2 2 4 2 2 4
COLLEGE DEG ANNUAL HSHOLD INC AGE IN YRS..............
Yes No <50K 50-100 >100K 18-29 30-44 45-64 65+
Yes 50% 54% 51% 56% 47% 55% 58% 50% 50%
No 45 44 45 41 50 42 40 47 45
DK/NA 4 3 4 3 2 4 1 3 5
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Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp
Traitor 34% 38% 39% 30% 34% 35% 33% 43% 37%
Whistle-blower 55 55 49 58 57 52 56 42 57
DK/NA 11 7 12 11 9 13 11 14 6
WHITE..............................................
COLLEGE DEG BornAgnEv Mltry
Yes No Prot Cath Men Wom Yes No HsHld
Traitor 37% 31% 34% 41% 32% 34% 32% 35% 39%
Whistle-blower 53 57 54 51 58 53 57 55 49
DK/NA 9 12 12 9 9 13 11 10 12
COLLEGE DEG ANNUAL HSHOLD INC AGE IN YRS..............
Yes No <50K 50-100 >100K 18-29 30-44 45-64 65+
Traitor 38% 32% 31% 33% 42% 23% 29% 38% 39%
Whistle-blower 52 56 58 55 52 68 60 51 48
DK/NA 9 12 11 12 6 8 11 11 13
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Sources:
- U.S. Voters Say Snowden Is Whistle-Blower, Not Traitor, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Big Shift On Civil Liberties vs. Counter-Terrorism (Quinnipiac University, 10 July 2013)
- Majority of Americans Support Snowden’s Prosecution (Felix Richter, GEI News, 27 June 2013)
- Snowden: I never gave any information to Chinese or Russian governments (Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian, 10 July 2013)
- Details of Snowden’s Hing Kong stay emerge (Jia Lynn Yang, Peter Finn and Sari Horwitz, The Washington Post, 24 June 2013)
- Did Russia, China Harvest Snowden’s Secrets? (Bob Dreyfus, The Nation, 25 June 2013)
