The Purpose of Polls

We can't watch a news program or ready an article without being fed poll results. Polls turn out not to be so much about gauging people's attitudes and opinions and more about influencing those attitudes and opinions.

It's all in the questions asked. Just look at the recent fight in Wisconsin. At issue, should government employees have the "right" to collective bargaining?

So the "pro" side on collective bargaining (read Democrats) run out and poll everyone, asking the generic question something along the lines of "Do you support a right of workers to form a union for the purpose of negotiating salary, benefits, and working conditions?"

Most people, something around 80 percent if I caught the poll results right, said yes. To the specific question above, I'm part of the 80 percent as well. But when the Democrats trumpet the 80 percent as proof of universal approval on the side of the public employee unions, they're wrong. Because after careful consideration and study of the underlying facts, I concluded that Wisconsin is doing the right thing.

The other side cites similar numbers when asking the public questions about whether it's reasonable for government to ask their employees to contribute something from their own paychecks to their pensions and health insurance.

Polls are used as sort of a bludgeon to convince average people that they must support the teachers' union because if they don't, they must belong to the 20 percent of idiots who don't support a right to collective bargaining. Or the flip side will tell average people that if they support collective bargaining for teachers, their government will go bankrupt while teachers live like leeches in a cushy Florida retirement condo.

The polls themselves are highly effective tools used by both parties to influence public sentiment, ultimately so those behind the polls can gain and keep power. It leads me to think that maybe it's time for the general public to end the manipulation.

A suggestion for a new movement - the anti-manipulative pollster movement. Whenever you get called by a pollster and given a question that's obviously crafted to elicit a response that can be used to support a political agenda, just say no. Refuse to participate unless asked a relevant question.

At least it will skew the results enough that it might discourage irresponsible polling.