When this country was founded, there were no national polls. The Constitution prescribed a republic, defined by legislators elected from their respective districts(house members), and legislators appointed by the states(senators), a president elected by the vote of electors selected by the states, and judiciary appointed by the president with the senate's approval. The 17th amendment provided that senators, instead, be elected by popular vote in each state. The genius of this system prevents the popular whims of the people from being acted upon, as they would in a democracy. By seperating these popular whims from the acts of the gov't, stability is insured.
Enter the modern national political poll. Some party is ALWAYS conducting a national political poll. As soon as the results come out, each and every elected official, and candidate, sticks his finger in the wind to see what the people want THIS week, and gets their speech writers working on the appropiate sound bite. This prevents any of them from coming up with an original idea, or voting their concience, and instead promotes mob rule. Precisely what a republican form of gov't is supposed to prevent. As elected office holders govern by poll, they have no restraint on what action they take. After all, this is what the people want, right? They refer to the Constitution only to see what they must do to avoid it's restrictions. They race headlong to promise the people what the polls say they want, damn the consequences.
The modern national political poll has given us a democracy.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury—with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by dictatorship.”
–Alexander Tyler (in England 400 years ago)
Everyone wants "FREE MONEY". The problem is, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, TANSTAAFL. Somebody has to foot the bill. If we don't stop asking for it, we will soon be wearing chains. Heck, we already are.
If you are so fortunate as to have a political pollster call you, LIE TO THEM. I have found it very gratifying.
