bapifar01: Spring ahead: Americans like Daylight Savings Time

We sometimes like to include off-beat or quirky non-political questions in our national poll?you might remember when we asked Americans whether they were rooting for the Packers or the Steelers in this year's Super Bowl. Last week, we also did something fun.

Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos & SEIU (3/17-20, MoE: �3.1, registered voters, no trendlines):

How do you feel about Daylight Savings Time?
Like it: 56
Dislike it: 31
Not sure: 12

Daylight Savings Time has been controversial from the very start. As Wikipedia notes:

Winston Churchill argued that it enlarges "the opportunities for the pursuit of health and happiness among the millions of people who live in this country" and pundits have dubbed it "Daylight Slaving Time". Historically, retailing, sports and tourism interests have favored daylight saving, while agricultural and evening entertainment interests have opposed it, and its initial adoption has been prompted by energy crisis and war.

Today, debates still rage about DST's merits, and online discussions often engender strong passions. So we decided to see how Americans really felt on the topic?and as you can see, a clear majority is in favor of Daylight Savings Time. Of course, we took this poll the weekend after we "sprang ahead," and that glorious extra hour of sunshine in the evening might have tilted the numbers in favor. (I think you can see where I stand on the issue.) On the other hand, the disruption might have caused additional grumbling on the part of the antis, so who's to say if it had any net effect on our polling? Perhaps we'll have to test again in November, right after we turn our clocks back, to find out for sure.

One interesting thing is that support for DST is remarkably consistent across all demographic groups - race, gender, age, ideology, income, geography, and political affiliation. Among every slice of the electorate, 50 to 60% say they like DST, with most in the mid-to-high 50s. (The only two outlier groups, Asian and "Other," have tiny samples.) Of course, since this is a poll of registered voters, we haven't tested kids or people who aren't registered. But among those who do maintain a voter registration, Daylight Savings Time seems like the rare issue that majorities of Americans, regardless of background, are willing to agree on.

So what do you say? I'm including the same poll so that Kossacks can take part. Just click below!