How polls can destroy America.

One would have to have been completely asleep over recent weeks to have avoided hearing poll results claiming that "seventy percent of the American people" believe Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9-11 terrorist attack. Of course, no real evidence to support this claim has been produced. Yet for many Americans a poll such as this provides sufficient evidence that Saddam did attack America on 9-11 and that Bush did the right thing in invading Iraq. After all, these Americans have been conditioned to believe that the majority is right, that polls reflect the majority's opinion, and that government should do what the majority wants. But these Americans could not be more wrong!

Any serious student of America's founding era knows that the men who created this nation abhorred democracy, the essence of which is unbridled majority rule. Rather than subject themselves and their posterity to such a danger, they crafted a republic, the rule of law, which has as its fundamental purpose limiting those who would govern. They showed their contempt for unrestricted popular opinion with their decision to have senators appointed by state legislators and presidents chosen by electors. They understood that popular sentiment should never replace independent thought, good judgement, and courageous adherence to principles.

On the other hand, would-be tyrants have long employed the tactic of appearing to cater to the will of the majority, while cleverly beguiling the people and leading them astray. Karl Marx advocated "democracy" in his Communist Manifesto, calling it "the first step in the revolution." A century later, Mao Tse-tung pointed to "the democratic revolution" as "the necessary preparation ... to bring about a socialist and communist society." Vladimir Lenin not only manipulated the masses to accomplish his evil ends, but used polling to win their support. He then became their spokesman, built a coalition of supporters, and with outside help seized control of the nation.

In America, the business of polling to announce what the majority supposedly thinks and then making that viewpoint national policy has become a contemptible scourge. It began in earnest a half century ago at the hands of George Gallup and Elmo Roper. Should we be surprised that Gallup joined the world-government promoters at the Council on Foreign Relations in 1939, and Roper did likewise in 1944?

The threat posed by pollsters takes two forms: 1) Most pollsters have an agenda and are more interested in shaping public opinion than in reporting it; and 2) Inordinate importance is attached to polling results. Pollsters report their findings as if the views of the few hundred individuals surveyed represent the thinking of the nation as a whole and then the nation is supposed to adopt that thinking as national policy. Even worse, professional pollsters are adept at producing virtually any conclusion they want via clever wording of questions, arbitrary selection of those polled, or out-and-out lying.

And lying is not out of the question. In his 1995 memoir, Call the Briefing, former presidential Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater told of a plan to concoct a poll to create a supposed need to dump Vice President Dan Quayle for the 1992 Bush re-election effort. Secretary of State James A. Baker III and campaign manager Robert Teeter actually created a fictitious poll to demonstrate that Quayle was a drag on the ticket. Fitzwater wrote that the president's son, George W. Bush, was in on the plot.

Though this planned fraud wasn't employed and Quayle wasn't dumped, these men were willing to sway the public's attitude by means of a fake poll. They intended to rely on the fact that a skyrocketing number of Americans allow themselves to be swayed by real or concocted popular opinion.

According to an increasingly prevalent attitude in America, if the majority wants something the government has a duty to provide it. Polls are playing a key role in stampeding the American people into accepting destructive policies. Even those who see the harm are being buffaloed into believing that they're all alone and that their cause is hopeless. And venal politicians base their campaigns, not on what's right and constitutional, but on the results of the latest poll.

More and more in America, the opinion of the majority is what counts. But majorities are often incorrect. If we Americans continue to allow ourselves to be influenced by polls, we might as well tear up the Constitution, abolish Congress, and ask a pollster to discover what we should do about everything. Which is precisely what former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot proposed while offering himself as a presidential candidate. He suggested having everyone in the nation vote by computer on every issue. That, of course, would be the purest form of democracy--and the certain end of the America we inherited.

Like television, a public opinion poll isn't inherently evil. How the poll is formulated, how it is used, and how much weight it is given determines its worth. When polls are used to shape opinion rather than reflect it, they become powerful weapons in the hands of freedom's enemies.

Americans should say: "I don't care what the pollsters tell us; I know what's right and I know what's wrong. And with the help of Almighty God, I'm going to see to it that right triumphs no matter how many may have been persuaded otherwise."