The questions were “Overall, how would you describe the problem of ____ in ____”. They weren’t “tell me how many murders there were?” or “how many drug overdoses in the last six months?”.
Getting back to my question about presidential job approval polls. That’s an unquantifiable value judgement as well (unless you want to tell me how many milliliters there are in “good job, Mr. President”). Do you dismiss those as meaningless? Or are you going to hang your hat on “about self”? That would be an absurd line of “reasoning” as well: it’s ok to make unquantifiable value judgements about one’s neighborhood, one’s country, one’s president, but not about one’s self. :rolleyes: Gimme a break.
You called it “just about the vaguest and least descriptive question possible”. I think that’s a ridiculous value judgement, but seeing as it’s your opinion, you’re entitled to it. Would you care to offer up an example of a polling question about patriotism that you think is more specific and less vague than “How patriotic are you?” If it’s really “just about the the vaguest and least descriptive question possible”, I imagine this will be an easy exercise for you. Or is patriotism itself just such an esoteric concept that it’s impossible to ask a non-vague and descriptive question about it?
I’m not the one digging a hole here, you are.