As polls make Obama’s advantage more clear each day, Republicans leaders are desperate for a way to make people believe that it just isn’t so. To achieve that end, they have concocted an idiotic conspiracy theory that the poll results are “voter suppression” by Democrats in cahoots with the media. Before going into this in more detail and explaining why it could not possibly be true, here is an explanation from the intellectual cream of the Republican Party.
If you listen to right-wing pundits, the entire political science establishment, in cahoots with mainstream media, are circling their wagons around their favored candidate, and obscuring either the inevitability of his failure or a more sinister outcome behind a font of false information. The current polling numbers that show President Barack Obama pulling ahead of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney are cooked, they say.
It’s a laughable premise, of course — the media are hardly kind to liberals or Democrats — but this is no random theory dreamed up by an unhinged wingnut. It’s a carefully crafted narrative, and one that may hold the only hope Republicans have of winning the 2012 presidential race. Why? Because with an increasingly shrinking slice of the electorate undecided on its presidential candidate, the outcome of election 2012 will likely hinge almost entirely on which candidate gets to the polls all the voters who lean his way. Polls that depress the spirits of right-wing voters could easily depress their turnout, as well…
…In the alternate universe occupied by the right, there’s a dark conspiracy afoot — one in which the steadfast conservative exists in an undulating world that conspires to confound him with unwelcome information: his big car is melting the polar ice caps, women are bringing home the bacon and, four years ago, a black man won the presidency, fair and square. Information that so disturbs challenges his comfort level must surely be wrong…
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Republicans point to the demographics, noting that this year’s polls use a higher percentage of Democrats and lower percentage of Republicans than they did four years ago. The conspiracy theory hinges on the notion that the media, who sponsor the polls, changed those demographic percentages intentionally to produce skewed results.
However, there is an alternate explanation that also happens to be true. Polls depend on self-identification of voters. Because the Republican party has moved so far to the extreme right, many former Republicans now self-identify as Independents, and many former Independents now self-identify as Democrats. In short, the polls reflect more Democrats and fewer Republicans than there were four years ago, because there are more Democrats and fewer Republicans than there were four years ago.
Finally, the reason the Republican conspiracy theory could not be true is that skewing the results is directly against the self-interest of the media. The media want a close race. The closer the race, the more people will pay attention and soak up media ads, generating more revenue for the media. After all, generating revenue is the be all and end all for the media.
So, is it skewed polls or warped minds? The answer is obvious.
20 Responses to “Skewed Polls or Warped Minds?”
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I'll be going door to door in 30 minutes to ensure Willard's goose is cooked…
Fantastic!!! We're right there with you in spirit.
I may actually try doing some door-to-door canvasing – but given my hearing deficit, only as a "bodyguard". Do you canvas in pairs, or individually.
Kudos to you both!!
Well, that cements it. The republicans are a group of grifters who will do anything, say anything, drive their obedient herd to think anything that will get them an advantage. That's simply it. There are no great republican ideas. There is no real republican thought. Just grab the money and get it any way you can.
Sure can't say it better– TYSM
What Phyllis said!
Republicans live in their own world where they are master. Nothing else matters. Trouble for them is, nobody wants to live there with them! They are their own worst enemy. They don't need any help in the "screwing up department" from Democrats!
I wonder what color the sky is in their skewed world…
For the 1%, golden.
For the 99%, fecal brown.
A bruised shade of brownish gray?
Lynn, you're right.
Funny, when Rmoney and Pres. Obama were neck and neck in the polls, they agreed with them and said their guy would pull ahead very quickly. Now the polls are rigged.
Of course. If Lord Willard were ahead, they's swear by them.
If I were a Tea Bag Republican and I thought there was no way my state would go to Obama, I'd vote for a 3rd party candidate that was closer to my views than Romney.
(Same thing for a liberal wishing for something closer than Obama).
But if I thought my party was behind, I'd try all the harder to get votes for my party's candidate.
The only way this "conspiracy" makes sense is if I was a True Believer and didn't believe it is possible for sane people to not think like I do. Obviously, normal Americans have to be like me (I'm a normal American), therefore it has to be some kind of conspiracy (Satanic?), that makes things look as though the other guys have a chance.
Howard, that is logical, but I have one concern. I wonder how many Nader voters thought Gore had it in the bag in 2000.
Yesterday, a republican who is against women having the right to choose, told me that republicans do not concern themselves with morality – and neither should government. He said this when we were talking about the economy and tax breaks for the rich a la Romney. What flaming hypocrites! It's pretty sad when you can't even slog half way through your own Fox News generated political philosophy. At that point, I just gave up.
So Angelica, by this Republican's own words, he is saying they are amoral. But personally I'd say they are spewing their own brand of a warped morality and faith. They are at every turn inserting it into everything including the party war platform. I'd say they are immoral because not only is their platform warped by faux Christian beliefs, they lie and deceive to try and get their own way and think that is quite ok. They are such HYPOCRITES!!!!!
They are the epitome of hypocrites, Lynn. Don't worry about morality when republicans are screwing the middle class and the poor out of their tax dollars, just worry about morality when other people are trying to live their lives in peace.
Republicans are concerned about morality, only when it's someone else's morality. They consider their own crimes moral by definition.
This is exactly what I was trying to say. You tell them that Mittens murdered jobs and stole worker pensions. They say, "But I'm okay with that. That's how business works." Then some law-abiding gay couple wants to get married and watch them clutch the pearls!