Polls schmolls

The American public has no bottom

We could throw some typical punditology in there, that Democrats and the Biden campaign “have to do a better job” reminding voters of Trump’s disastrous handling of COVID – over a million dead, remember, folks? – and his equally disastrous economy.  But why bother?  Some poll is going to find that RFK Jr. is either surging or falling, Biden is going to bounce up three points, or Trump will be caught drooling on his tie in court and he’ll go down a few.  Or maybe not.  There could be a Nappers Rights vote out there we haven’t heard from yet.

The trouble with polling in the current political environment is that the pollsters don’t want to admit that the American public has no bottom.  There’s no opinion too far-out that a significant percentage can’t be found to proudly espouse it.  I saw a video of interviews done at a Trump rally recently, and it went downhill from the Comet Pizza joint basement pedophile ring right into the JFK Jr. rapture zone. 

Polling outfits aren’t admitting to themselves or to us that their results are permanently skewed by Fox News and what we might call the Bannon Industrial Complex online.  What we need — and we need it right now, today — is a poll that explores the edges of the “thinking” of the American electorate.  Pew or Marist or one of those outfits should sit down and come up with a list of questions that might reveal the real answer behind the Trump-Biden results they’re getting.  How many believe the moon landing was faked?  Raise your hands!  How about a poll question on the whole pedophiles-are-running-the-world thing, or a question probing the reaches of the American opinion on who controls “international banking.” 

I’ll give you two guesses what the numbers would be on that one.

This is my weekly Salon column. You can read the rest of the column at the link below:

Polls schmolls