31 March 2017
Democrats follow the polls, Republicans change the polls
If a congressional candidate polls poorly, or runs in a district that the Republican candidate for President won bigtime, Democrats write him off. To Democrats, polls are holy writ.
But if a Republican candidate polls poorly, his party tries to persuade voters to change their minds.
Which approach wins more elections? The Republican approach.
But losing their majorities in the U.S. House and Senate has only taught the “leaders” at the Democratic National Committee to redouble their faith in a failed approach. Here’s linguist George Lakoff speaking to Salon’s Paul Rosenberg last year:
Well over a decade. During the Bush administration, I talked to the Democratic caucus. I was invited by Nancy Pelosi, and I talked to them about “Don’t Think of an Elephant,” and the strict father/nurturant parent distinction, and I pointed out that one thing strict fathers can’t do is betray trust. It turned out that the Southerners in the caucus agreed strongly, and they wanted to have me work with them on talking about Bush betraying trust. But Nancy said, “Well, we should check with the polls first,” and she checked with one of the major pollsters who said, “Oh no, my polls show that people trust Bush, therefore we can’t use it.” And the idea is to follow the polls, rather than change them. And this is a big difference between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans try to change the polls, whereas Democrats try to follow the polls.
Democrats are trying to practice risk free politics. But there’s no such thing as a risk free election. Not backing a long shot candidate who might win with some help, especially in a special election when there’s not much competition for money, is a decision to forego opportunity. The result is majority free politics. Will you ever understand that, Tom Perez, Nancy Pelosi, et al?