Lots of articles about polls, who’s ahead, whose behind, which groups, which areas, which states are on whose side. The polls change almost daily, based on who is asking the questions and how they’re phrased. And the polls are “samples”, usually no more than a couple of thousand people in a country where over 200 million can legally vote. Pundits claim that polls “give us a sense” of how the country is “leaning”.
(Eyeroll) Please stop. The polls are mostly useless.
Consider: how many of us have hung up on pollsters because we’re tired of “push polling” questions? Now, consider who actually answers the phone and answers the questions?
It’s not about the polls. It’s about the truth.
The majority of people, even though they realize its importance, are turned off by “tough love” and in-your-face honesty (even when politely spoken). They don’t like it when faced by the consequences of their own actions. They search for someone to blame. And when they hear a politician tell them to “blame my opponent”, they do. It’s easier than accepting responsibility for the fact that they probably voted that politician into office.
The truth is always more difficult to hear than a lie. Democrats know this. They’re comfortable with a straight-out lie, especially if it also casts blame on someone other than themselves. They lie with ease and seem to have no qualms about living with the lie. They’re comfortable with it. And, in some cases, they even celebrate it.
Conservatives – especially those who have mostly-unshakable morals and principles – generally find it very difficult to lie. More often than not, they’ll tell the truth. They’ll try to serve it up with a smile and polite words, but it’ll be the truth. And for that, they lose elections because too many of The People are more comfortable with a lie than the truth.
One other thing. Americans have had good lives and peace for 80+ years. They haven’t forcibly sent their children to a war overseas since the end (?) of the Korean conflict. They haven’t had to deal with rationing of food, fuel, and other necessities of life for most (all) of their lives.
They’ve been comfortable, protected, and mostly immune to the horrors occurring in other parts of the world (Mao’s forced depopulation of China, Pol Pot’s murderous reign, North Korea’s despots, Middle Eastern repression of women as well as inter-clan wars, etc).
No, the gas lines of the ’70s don’t count, neither does the current wave of inflation of food, fuel, and housing. Although these are all difficult, none have been impossible to overcome. None have caused Americans to massively take up arms against each other in rage, eager to wipe “them” out – whoever “they” are.
We’ve had it so good, for so long, that we do not know what it means to be truly wanting.
Hard men made hard choices to get us here. Now, soft men are making choices that can take it all away. G. Michael Hopf wrote: “Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” We’re at an inflection point today, when “weak men” are running our government.
If we’re not careful, our current “good times” will result in “weak men” destroying our society. And then “hard times” will come down upon us – and may also drag us into internecine warfare, red states against blue states, red cities against blue cities. And in some cases, family member against family member (just as it was in the mid-1800’s).
Be careful how you vote this November. And remember that the truth often presents hard lessons that must be learned – or harder times will be the result.
