In our chapter on public opinion and political participation, we ask how and when public opinion is truly deliberative. In Slate, Jacob Weisberg offers a negative verdict, saying that "the biggest culprit in our current predicament: the childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large." He goes on:
Anybody who says you can't have it both ways clearly hasn't been spending much time reading opinion polls lately. One year ago, 59 percent of the American public liked the stimulus plan, according to Gallup. A few months later, with the economy still deeply mired in recession, a majority of the same size said Obama was spending too much money on it. There's nothing wrong with changing your mind, of course, but opinion polls over the last year reflect something altogether more troubling: a country that simultaneously demands and rejects action on unemployment, deficits, health care, climate change, and a whole host of other major problems. Sixty percent of Americans want stricter regulations of financial institutions. But nearly the same proportion says we're suffering from too much regulation on business. That kind of illogic—or, if you prefer, susceptibility to rhetorical manipulation—is what locks the status quo in place.
But is the public as illogical as this passage suggests? One may believe that there is too much regulation of business in general, yet support greater regulation in one specific area. People may support the basic idea of an economic stimulus, yet regard the implementation of the policy as faulty and wasteful. As for the latter point, a Washington Post poll suggests that people increasingly believe that the federal government wastes their tax dollars:
On another subject, out of every dollar the federal government collects in taxes, how many cents do you think are wasted?
Average
2/8/10 53 cents
4/9/06 51
4/14/02 47 4/16/00 46 1/7/98 56 1/29/95 51 8/8/93 47 2/28/93 46 10/21/91 49 9/30/90 44 5/21/90 46 7/29/85 43 
