The media’s fixation with polls needs to end.
I understand a candidate taking a poll or having focus groups to gauge what people are thinking. That will help them to solidify their platform and message. This would be akin to companies doing market research.
The polls that bother me are the ones asking people who they are going to vote for, what you think of a candidate, potential candidate, or current elected. Who do these polls help? What is the purpose? Why should an individual care?
I DON’T CARE.
I don’t care that more than 60 percent of those polled (that doesn’t mean more than 60 percent of the population) give a thumbs down to President Biden. He’s certainly not my favorite president. Depending on how the polling question were phrased I would be part of that 60 percent.
However, that does not mean I would rather have his 2020 opponent in the White House. Never would that be the case.
Plus, polls are only as good as the answers received. In other words, were the respondents being truthful? With the outcome of the recent election, one might surmise the pollsters were lied to.
Let’s get rid of polls and talk issues. Let’s talk solutions. That’s what matters.
One of the problems is we have an ill-informed electorate that struggles to or is unable or unwilling to talk issues.
But dammit that’s not good enough. You can’t whine about gas prices, food prices and whatever else without knowing why prices are escalating and who can actually do something about it.
Have you looked at corporate profits? Do you know who wants corporations to pay their fair share of taxes and who has given them more tax breaks?
If people were asked what they thought about the Inflation Reduction Act that was signed into law this year, would they have an opinion? There is so much to this bill that it is understandable to be overwhelmed by it and not comprehend it.
According to the Senate, these are some of the things the Inflation Reduction Act will do:
- Enacts historic deficit reduction to fight inflation.
- Lowers energy costs, increases cleaner production, and reduces carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030.
- Allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices and caps out-of-pocket costs to $2,000.
- Lowers ACA health care premiums for millions of Americans.
- Make biggest corporations and ultra-wealthy pay their fair share.
- There are no new taxes on families making $400,000 or less and no new taxes on small businesses. We are closing tax loopholes and enforcing the tax code.
The CHIPS and Science Act is another huge bill that passed Congress and was signed by the president this year. This will bring more jobs to the United States and will mean less dependency on China.
Also passed this year were the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act and the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. Biden also signed the Safer Communities Act. This is the first major piece of gun legislation to become law since 1994.
I mention all of these laws because I know most people know nothing about them.
People who are not in Biden’s party (I’m not in it either) have told me he isn’t doing anything. Look at the above legislation and other laws that he has signed. You may not like these laws, but you can’t legitimately say he is not doing anything. And, of course, he is not doing this alone. The House and Senate first had to approve them.
It’s time the media spend more time on issues and less time on polls. Then maybe we would have a better informed electorate. Of course this is assuming people actually want to become informed. After all, there is a lot of legitimate information out there if people were paying attention and cared.
