Polls, Polls, a Pox on all your Polls!

I would love to take a poll on polls but such a poll would itself be a polemic. Today, so many politicians and media outlets herald this poll or that poll to support their point that the numbers blur, contradict and confuse. The intimation of those who advance these polls is that those in power should heed THEIR polls and govern according to the so-called "will of the people."

At the risk of being called un-American, I frankly could give a rat's tail what the polls say. Furthermore, I daresay that any politician who sticks up his index finger and follows the winds of poll results in governing is doing a disservice to those very people who expect them to follow the polls!

Governing by polls is akin to direct democracy and the initiative process—we see how well that has worked in California—neither of which has a rightful place in our republic. Our Founding Fathers, whom many revere as demigods rather than the mere mortals they were, did not sign on to the whole notion of democracy.

None other than John Adams, who had a healthy weariness of mankind, stated "Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide."

Further chiming in was Thomas Jefferson, who stated "A democracy [is] the only pure republic, but impracticable beyond the limits of a town like Ramona" (ok, I added the part in italics).

And just to further clarify, James Madison, the father of our Constitution, wrote, "Hence it is that democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have even been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths."

The only polls that matter are the ones held every two years for the House of Representatives, every six years for the Senate and every four years for President. Once elected, we should leave these people alone to govern and if they disappoint, we should replace them in the next election cycle. This is orderly government and not the chaos of meandering along the path of the whim of the people at any particular time. We elect representatives and expect them to use their knowledge, industry and thoughtfulness to govern. Let them...

So Fox News, MSNBC, presidents and politicians on all levels, stop regaling us with what the polls are telling you. Not only are polls the victims of the subjective input of the poll creators and the selection of the poll takers, but they are irrelevant in the art of governing in a Republic.

As Benjamin Franklin so succinctly put it, "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch..."