Today, I visited Assemblyman (and former SOCCCD trustee) Don Wagner’s government website: here. I noticed a button: “click here to take our latest survey.”
So I did. At present, Don has three surveys: Healthcare, Immigration, and Jobs.
I chose the one on immigration. It asks just four questions:
Observe that the third and fourth questions of this survey are about how respondents “feel” about things:
(California's "situation"? That's mighty vague. On the other hand, under the circumstances, I think we can safely assume that Don means the state's fiscal situation, which, of course, is dire.)
Whether "illegal immigration is a large contributing factor to" the state's fiscal "situation" and how much (if at all) it contributes to it—these are empirical questions. When confronted with empirical questions, one should make the appropriate observations; one should seek the relevant data.
One does not ask for people's opinions.
Odd.
Also, Don is asking questions about matters imbedded in a cluster of empirical and non-empirical issues that comprise the illegal immigration issue. (Can the existing pattern and amount of immigration be stopped or thwarted? How can it be? At what cost in other values such as privacy? Is multiculturalism a legitimate value? Is it decent to seek to prevent such phenomena as the gradual dilution of one's "culture"? Etc.)
Don distorts the immigration issue by implying that it's essentially about whether illegal immigration is costly.
And isn't Don asking for people's opinions (about these curiously selective matters) already knowing full well what those opinions are? ("It's a big contributor! It's immense!")
That's some survey, that Don Wagner "immigration" survey.
That's some catch, that Catch-22
