"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Polls and Public Policy

We are asked to join in the acclamation for approving gay marriage because, we are told, recent polls show the country swinging toward a small majority in support of the proposition:

Supporters of gay marriage again and again cite the shifting polls, as if they are relevant to a deliberation over whether gay marriage is mandated by the Constitution. On “Morning Joe,” former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt, a signatory on a Republican pro-gay marriage brief, said he thought the Court would recognize the “importance of this moment.” He confidently predicted that gay marriage would pass in an initiative held in California in a presidential election year. Can’t we wait to have the court impose gay marriage until we’re certain an initiative would pass in an off-year election, too?
His former McCain campaign colleague and fellow signatory Nicolle Wallace appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and made the same case. “More than 60 percent of all Americans, everyone, supports marriage equality,” she said. Wallace was apparently referring to a ABC News/Washington Post poll that showed 58 percent support for gay marriage, which technically is not more, but less than 60 percent. (At least I think that’s what Nate Silver would say.)
This happens to be the best result in any of the recent polls for gay marriage. So Nicole Wallace evidently believes the court should be swayed not just by opinion polls, but by outlier opinion polls. Her point would have been considerably attenuated if she had said, “The most recent Pew poll has 49-44 percent favor gay marriage and the Fox poll 49-46 percent support, slim pluralities that mean … the court … must… act… now.”

Meanwhile, here's a recent poll that shows that 85% of Americans think the federal government should balance its budget.

Since we apparently agree that whatever the most recent polls of a fickle population say at any given moment should drive our public policy, can we get started on that balanced budget now?

1 comment:

  1. FOR GAYS ONLY: Jesus predicted that just before His return as Judge, there will be a strange, dangerous fad - a spontaneous global steamroller notable for its speed, violence, and impudent in-your-face openness. In Luke 17 He called this worldwide craze the repeat of the "days of Lot" (see Genesis 19). By fulfilling this worldwide mania that's secretly coordinated by unseen spirit beings, gays are really hurrying up Christ's return and making the Bible even more believable!
    They've actually invented strange architecture: closets opening not on to bedrooms but on to Main Streets where kids can see naked men having sex in "Madam" Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco Brothel District. We wonder how soon S.F.'s underground saint - San Andreas - will get a 10-point jolt out of what goes on over his head (see the dire prediction about cities in Revelation 16:19, and Google "Obama Supports Public Depravity").
    What's really scary is the "reprobate mind" phrase in Romans 1:28. A person can sear his conscience so much that God finally turns him over to S, the universal evil leader whose unseen agents can give a "possessed" person super-human strength that many cops with tasers have trouble subduing!
    Remember, gays don't have to stay bound to their slavery. Their emancipation is found in a 5-letter name starting with J - no, not James or Julia. As soon as they can find out the all-powerful J name, gays will really start living!

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