The One Thing Cheney Was Right About: Governing Based on Public Opinion Polls is Ridiculous

[babsbunny]

http://blog.buzzflash.com/analysis/1053

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

One of the most popular rallying cries of Republicans and tea partiers alike this election year is that Democrats are not listening to the will of the American people. They can point to polls on many hot-button issues, from immigration to the environment to trying terrorism suspects and say that the "majority of Americans" disagree.

Well, count me as one American who disagrees with that entire premise. On this particular issue, I'm with former Darth Vader Dick Cheney's sentiment that public officials shouldn't "be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls."

Let's start with immigration. Despite the massive public outcry over the Arizona immigration bill, all we hear about in the media is about how the majority of Americans support it. Well, that is, 51 percent of the 1,079 people who were asked about it in this one poll said that they backed the new law. Yet when asked in that same poll what they think should be done with illegal immigrants found in this country, a whopping 64 percent of respondents said that they should be allowed to stay here under some kind of work and/or citizenship program.

[arcane1]

1. We had an extremely accurate nation-wide poll already

In November 2008