Sorry to introduce reality and adult big-pants thinking into the polling industry in this country, which continues to poll on traditional (so contextually and historically oblivious) questions, but let’s do it:
The nation’s two choices this fall are a party led by Joe Biden, a traditional, patriotic American president who is working (and doing a damned good job) for all Americans, and a now-captured ‘Republican Party’, the leadership of which is now dominated by a cult that believes in neither platforms, nor policy choices, nor reaching out to all Americans (nor even debates now), and whose cult leader is deeply tied in mysterious ways to Vladimir Putin, a dictator and monstrous war criminal.
The polling industry is doing this country no favors in normalizing a new autocratic party by using traditional issue framing, pretending that this election this year is just another, when it actually may feature our last free and fair election, based on that autocratic party’s own leaders’ words.
This is a party led by a man who, to this very day, is on the wrong side of history in refusing to so much as gently criticize the war crime monster and summary executioner of civilian men, women, and children, Vladimir Putin.
It would be one thing if the relationship between Trump and Putin was limited to one of convenience. But this is not the case. For seven years now, Trump has made it infinitely clear that he admires the way Vladimir Putin functions as the governor of a nation.
By failing to even attempt to bring this reality into their polling, American pollsters are unknowingly enabling the obliteration of truth.
Silence equals death.
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” GEORGE ORWELL
“Does Donald Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin make it more or less likely that you will vote Republican in this Fall’s congressional election?”
It is outrageous that this question has not been asked by a major pollster regarding this Fall’s election.
“It nothing is true everything is possible.” VOLTAIRE
Trump and Putin are Fascists. They both believe in the control of government by crony capitalism driven by right-wing ideology and bellicose nationalism.
This question should not be limited to Donald Trump.
In widely publicized and well-documented reporting by mainstream news outlets like the Washington Post, New York Times, and MSNBC (a respected source at the time), we know that:
Russia’s successful takeover of the US government in 2016 was not limited to Donald Trump.
I think an additional question should be:
The continuing disconnect between this Fall’s election and the universally acknowledged fact that Trump has a stranglehold on the Republicans can only be accurately described as a mass delusion.
This mass delusion presently encompasses the mainstream media, pollsters, and apparently most newspaper editorial boards.
Job number one of the Democratic Party is to end this mass delusion, reassemble the coalition of the young, people of color, women, the LGBTQ community, and progressives, and declare a five-alarm fire.
Obtuse anti-inflation measures do not a five-alarm fire response make.
In today’s America, an overwhelming majority of today’s GOP base is horrified by Mr. Putin’s actions in Ukraine.
If the American electorate understood that today’s GOP is a bought-and-paid-for puppet of Vladimir Putin, the 2022 election would a runaway. Recent polls suggest that only 5-8% of American voters agree with the Putinist rants of Donald Trump.
The mainstream news media lose money on a runaway election. Even more accurate than “mass delusion” is “self-aggrandizing propaganda”.
The mainstream news media — especially MSNBC and CNN — are gaslighting us about the role of Russia in today’s GOP.
I am a retired working class white guy living on the Cape. I don’t spend much of my time worrying about Roe V Wade or Gay Rights or Minority Rights. I’ve worked alongside of many young people during my last five years as I worked in retail, and I’d say they were as diverse on the aforementioned as anyone else. I was surprised to see how many voted for Trump. Anecdotal, I will admit, but my experience no less. The same holds true for the women I worked with. Again, this was all in Metro West, near Shrewsbury, but that’s a glimpse of the voters.
Your coalition makes it a tough row to hoe, in my humble opinion.
I’m worried that my Social Security checks won’t cover my inflated costs for food, utilities, home repairs. I’m fortunate that my car averages 100 MPG but I hear all of my neighbors complain about the price of gas.
I’m worried about Russia as I am a child of the Cold War. I do not want my grandchildren to have to practice hiding under their desks and seeing Fall Out Shelter Signs at school.
This is a coalition that works as it includes the young, people of color, women, the LGBTQ community, and progressives who have the same fears.
I wish they would give three choices to answer the question about whether you approve of the job Biden is doing: Yes, No because he’s doing too much, and No because he hasn’t gone far enough.