The only poll that matters is the one we have every couple years in November.
"Polls say.." sounds impressive, but what does it actually mean? In many cases, NOTHING, other than the way the people who were asked, answered.
We act as if a "poll" is somehow a magic, representative sample of the whole, and its NOT. It CANNOT BE, the way we do polls.
How many people were asked? WHAT were they asked? (and I mean what were the exact questions, and what were the allowable responses??)
I am reminded of a cartoon from the early 70s, a poll taker asks the question, "if the election were held tomorrow, who would you vote for? A) Santa Claus B) The Easter Bunney, C) Richard M. Nixon..."
WHAT the questions are, and what the allowed answers are MATTER. Asking 1,000 people a loaded question and then acting as if that is the true opinion of over 330 MILLION Americans, is just insane. But we do it, constantly.
Scraping a gram of concrete dust from the Empire State Building does NOT tell you accurately what the building is made of. OR anything about the people inside.
A teaspoon of water from NY harbor does not give an accurate representation of the entirety of the Atlantic Ocean. Etc, Etc.
Add to this the fact that in any anonymous poll, some people will LIE.
I knew a fellow, and old farmer, about at political as a rock. Somehow,he got on the list to be called, and asked about how he felt about the job the President was doing. (this was during the Clinton years but I think it still applies, perhaps, even more so...) They called him every couple months.
Since he didn't care, he told them he was fine with the job the Pres was doing. After a year or so, he decided, just to see what happened, to tell them something different. The next time they called, he told them he was unhappy with the job the Pres was doing.
They never called him again....
Every time I hear anyone saying how "X % of Americans" support something, (not X % of people polled but X % of Americans or Voters) I know its crap.
Some politician claiming we have to do something because 70/80/ whatever percent of the people favor it, when in fact not even ONE percent of the people were asked simply is not the truth.
Don't accept it as a fact chiseled in stone handed down from on high. IT's not.
