You can be forgiven if you missed this today, but a new survey shows a majority of Americans support the NFL national anthem protests.
Fifty-one percent of registered voters characterized the demonstrations as “appropriate,” while 42 percent said the opposite, according to a USA Today/Suffolk poll released Monday. In contrast, a whopping 68 percent said they disapproved of President Trump’s criticism of the NFL protesters, while only 27 percent said they approved.
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There’s a lot that can be inferred here, but let’s avoid the temptation to conclude from this one survey that President Trump, who is decidedly anti-protest, is definitely on the losing side of this issue.
Recall that three separate surveys released last week found that respondents disapprove of the president’s response and the protests. In fact, all three polls found that people overwhelmingly dislike the national anthem demonstrations.
A survey commissioned by ESPN found that 51 percent of respondents disapprove of the national anthem demonstrations, while only 39 percent approve. A CBS survey found 52 percent disapprove, while only 38 approve. A separate HuffPost/YouGov survey found that 48 percent of respondents characterized the protests as “inappropriate,” while 36 percent called them “appropriate.”
That said, there’s one thing that sets the USA Today/Suffolk survey apart from the rest: Wording.
Here is what respondents were asked in the survey released Monday: “Some NFL players have dropped to one knee during the playing of the National Anthem, as a protest to bringing attention to police brutality racial injustice. In your opinion, is it appropriate for players to engage in this sort of protest before an NFL game – yes or no?”
The ESPN survey that came out last week, on the other hand, asked simply if respondents “approved” or “disapproved” of the protests. That’s it. Likewise, the CBS survey asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of football players protesting by kneeling during the national anthem?” And the HuffPost/YouGov survey also asked, “Do you think it’s appropriate or inappropriate for NFL players to kneel in protest during the national anthem?”
In contrast to the USA Today/Suffolk poll, the wording of the questions in the surveys released last week offer no context about the why of the national anthem demonstrations.
USA Today may have hit on something.
Since Trump got involved in the NFL protests, the debate has been about free speech and whether private sector workers have the right to express political opinions. The original purpose – i.e. calling attention to acts of police brutality on minority victims – is a faded memory now that most everyone is wrapped up in the finer points of presidential tone and rhetoric.
But could support for the national anthem demonstrations be contingent on whether respondents know what the hell is even being protested? Could simply reminding people of the original purpose swing public favor in the players’ direction?
Maybe.
One thing that seems certain is that it’s premature to hail the USA Today/Suffolk poll as a definitive indicator of which way the public is going on this one. It’s easy to think the survey means Trump is driving people to the pro-protest side of things, but we’re going to need more than one poll to draw that conclusion. Hopefully, when we get new data on what people think of this whole mess, the questions will offer the sort of context that we saw in the USA Today/Suffolk poll.
(h/t Varad Mehta)
