Polling Democracy

There’s this idea Republicans keep pimping that polls don’t count, and that for a politician to follow the polls is a foolhardy thing that will make them do all kinds of crazy things and flip-flop faster than a rooster at a hotfoot convention.  And of course, they’re really only referring to polls that show them doing poorly, as they’re quicker than anyone to tout the few good ones they have.  

But beyond that, what the hell are they talking about?  What’s so bad about polls?  This is a democracy, isn’t it?  Shouldn’t we have at least some kind of say about how things should be, beyond the occasional election?  Of course.  And isn’t their rejection of all polls nothing more than a complete slap in the face of the American people?  Of course.  Because if you dismiss poll results as being crazy and flip-flopping, doesn’t that directly imply that the people polled are crazy flip-floppers?  Of course.  And sure, polls can change and you can’t put too much significance into any one poll (though that doesn’t stop Republicans).  But when you’ve got a whole collection of polls that clearly point in one direction, then it’s utterly wrong to ignore them.  

In fact, this is just one more sign that Republicans have the highest disdain for the American people, as evidenced by their penchant for trickery and outright lies.  They just don’t give a damn about people and think it’s a big con game for them to manipulate.  For Republicans, if the polls don’t point in the right direction, then they just have to change the questions asked or the words used.  

Because they don’t give a damn.  And they sure as hell don’t want to give people what they want.  Rather, they want the people to want what they’ve got to give.  So the only purpose that polls serve for them is to tell them whether or not their sales campaign is working.  That’s all they care about.  They think we’re all a bunch of moronic suckers who can be sold a long-term ideological agenda like it was a tube of toothpaste.  “New & Improved Social Security; Same Great Name with Half the Benefits”.

And the people they disdain the most are the Republican supporters themselves, to whom they feel no loyalty and have no qualms whatsoever with deceiving on a constant bias.  And as with most conmen, they resent their victims more than anyone, as it helps them justify their own wickedness.  

Like Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh.  They don’t hate you and me.  They don’t even notice us, having replaced us with the clownish strawmen they’ve been beating up for years.  No, they hate their supporters.  The poor saps they lie to for profit and fame.  And they can talk directly with these suckers and will happily deceive them on a regular basis.  That’s pure contempt.  And the further down the road to fantasyland they lead these poor people, the more contemptuous they become.  Is it any wonder that Limbaugh uses pills to kill the pain?  And I don’t even want to think about how Mr. Falafel copes with it.  Simply disgusting.

But again, this whole talk of disobeying the polls is yet another part of their sales pitch.  They dismiss polls only when they show Republicans looking bad, and are merely looking for an excuse to get people to stop talking about them.  And so they go with their “We don’t follow polls” mantra because it makes them look bold and daring, when all it really shows is how insultingly anti-democratic they are.  They insist that they can ignore the people’s demands, just as long as they can win on election day.  But soon enough, they’ll find it impossible to do either.