Define “Majority”

Did you see the recent poll that says 51% of all Americans now believe the White House “deliberately misled” us about those weapons of mass destruction? I’ve believed that all the way along, myself. Not that it matters much at this point.
Nevertheless, that poll number is interesting. Mark Evanier thinks so, too, and he’s raised a very good question in regards to it:

…as more and more of Bush’s negative ratings hit that magic number of half-the-nation-plus-one, I wonder about something. [I wonder] how many Bush supporters who thought 51% in the last election was a mandate or even a landslide will now argue that 51% or even anything below 55% or so isn’t really a majority.

For the record, I’m not trying to be a smartass here. I’m just considering a semantic point: in this age when nothing is free of the taint of political spin, when each side of the debate jockeys endlessly for the slightest edge over the other, can we even agree anymore what constitutes a majority? And what does it mean for our society if we can’t even find consensus on that?

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