Public View Shifts Against Closing Gitmo

March 29, 2010  |  Posted by Danielle Belton

According to CNN, views about closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay are rapidly shifting and not in our favor.

In a new national poll conducted by CNN/Opinion Research Corporation, CNN reports that support for closing Gitmo has dropped 12 points in 14 months. That's 12 points since President Obama took office with the biggest loses being among Independent voters.

From CNN:

Shortly before Obama's inauguration, 51 percent of Americans said they thought the facility in Cuba should be closed. Now that number is down to 39 percent, and six in ten believe the United States should continue to operate Guantanamo.

The poll, released Sunday, suggests independent voters are contributing to the 12 point overall drop.

"Just Democrats still think that Guantanamo should be closed, but Independents have completely changed - from an even split in January 2009 to three-quarters who want to keep the facility open today," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

More than three out of four Republicans questioned in the poll think that the facility should stay open.

These numbers are bound to give right wingers more fuel to put pressure on the President to keep him from doing the right thing and closing Gitmo. We need to keep up the pressure on our side to make sure political expediency doesn't trump ending Bush era policies of detention without charge or trial. Just like with the health care debate, the more the facts get out and the less there is of "fear-mongering fiction," we have a greater chance for success. The more people know about why Gitmo needs to close the more support we will have. In the health care debate it was a combination of relentless truth telling and political courage that won the day over the right-wing health care “socialism” fear machine. Our opponents thrive when their shrill fear based fiction has center stage. Our side – starting with our allies in the Obama administration and Congress, need to fully engage. And, so do we, by challenging the Cheney crowd and making our voices heard in Congress and the White House.

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