Joe Doakes from Como Park writes:

Got a phone call last night from a young-sounding woman who said she was calling from San Jose University doing a survey of public opinion about transportation.

She started out asking about the sorry condition of streets and highways in my area (which are, indeed, sorry). After the first three questions, it was clear to me that the agenda was not to fix streets but to find support for mass transit. Once I realized that, I altered my answers accordingly.

For example, in response to “Would you favor government initiatives to reduce traffic congestion?” I normally would have said “Strongly Agree” because the freeways are parking lots during rush hour. Instead I said “Strongly Oppose – because I know that by “reduce traffic congestion” you mean to take away my car and stuff me into a bus rather than build more lane miles.”

You have to watch out for these questions; they lead to polls that groups like the Met Council flog saying “there’s overwhelming support for transit!”.

There were several “educational” questions that told me how little the federal government spent on transportation now and would I favor spending more; and told me how low the federal gas tax is now and how little extra I’d pay if Congress raised the gas tax. “Strongly oppose – because I know Congress will divert the gas tax money to pay for Light Rail, just as they did in Minnesota.”

There was no opportunity to say “There is no Constitutional authority for Congress to spend money on transportation, it’s a purely local issue to be addressed by states and cities” nor to say “In 15 years, debt service on the national debt alone will exceed federal tax receipts and will bankrupt the country so more federal spending is madness.”

Alas.

I even answered the age, education and income questions, figuring why not. No doubt the poll results will show massive support for increased Congressional spending on mass transit among all except a tiny handful of privileged White skinflints.

Hey – I’m now the 1%!

Joe Doakes

Como Park

Most conservatives are – provided you’re measuring “people who think”.