and why it’s happening again
Pay attention to history – history repeats itself. Reaction to the 2014 election was a combination of disbelief and euphoria. But why were so many people wrong? Pundits, newsmen, even the political partisans themselves overvalued the Obama record by a mile and a half.
God too is full of surprises
It’s worth examining because the same problem exists in theology since human history is a case study in constant surprise to mankind over what God is or is not doing. And it is not necessary; God has a book which tells us what we need to know.
The TV and newspaper media types were flummoxed. How could this happen? We were so sure it would be close. What has been called a wave for the Republicans was in reality a tsunami, a giant repudiation sweeping away assumptions (we could wish) and the false predictions that led so many astray.
What happened is this. After 10 years of being spoon fed information, much of it not true, the major media outlets assumed (notice the word assume) that their predictions were true, perhaps never really recognizing that they had been deceived into believing the very same stuff they’d been giving the public.
Journalists get lazy, use other’s words
As a former paid journalist I learned how easy it is to sit at one’s comfy desk and regurgitate the stuff coming in the mail or email or the self-congratulatory public relations memos from government offices, major corporations and pundits paid to add political lipstick to pigs.
This would not have happened 40 years ago. Why? Real news comes from voters, apparently the one source no one bothered to check. Real journalists talk to real voters, personally.
Data overlooked
Here is an example. The administration crowed about 5% unemployment. Truth? 93,000,000 working age people do not have a full time job. Why? Because Obamacare regulations militated against full time workers (over 30 hours a week); hiring full time workers requires very high new health care insurance premiums. So now Mom and Pop have 3-part time jobs between them. They can’t buy a house or have another baby; the one car is on its last tire.
The rest have no job at all so mostly blacks and Hispanics were unemployed. 50% of Hispanic men voted Republican in 2014. A good journalist would have seen this coming. We have now 8 years of pent-up demand for new cars, new homes and desires for job changes, while college-trained kids lounge in the basement – ain’t nobody happy.
False issues
2nd reason. False issues. The war on women is an example. There’s a war only if you believe sex is the main voting issue. It is not. Women suffer most from high unemployment, low wages, and a husband not fully employed. Unemployed men get into trouble, drink, watch porn, and just generally stew in anger or slop around in self-pity.
Work is not a curse; it is a blessing from God.
For the people in Washington the job market is great – for the rest, check out what happened to the coal miners in West Virginia. 42,000 jobs are associated alone with the extension of the pipeline from Canada. That and many other areas of employment were blocked by the White House and by stifling regulations.
People feel better about themselves when they have valuable work; it shows them they are appreciated and important, even in small jobs. Employed people make friends and have social contacts they do not have sitting at home watching TV.
People vote with their feet
A good journalist checks statistics. 1,200 people every day for 10 years moved to Texas for the best jobs, a strong house market of not overly-priced homes, and highly publicized re-locations of major corporations lured to Texas and other pro-growth, no income tax states.
Over 2 million left California for Nevada’s no income tax. Florida has no income tax as well. It is flourishing. Millions of people and dozens of companies fled New York and Illinois; Wisconsin went from a high tax to a lower tax state. The data about the lives of Americans was out there, but media people talk to each other at the same cocktail parties, they agree with each other, they are well paid with drivers and limos so their world is lush and lovely.
History repeats itself – again
This same thing happened in 1932. A new political pollster (not Gallup) came on the scene to ask the voters who was going to win the election of 1932. Franklin D. Roosevelt was running against Herbert Hoover right after the stock market crash of 1929. The pollsters called names in the telephone book. Modern pollsters have what is called push-pull polls. They skew the questions to generate answers their politicians want.
I searched the internet for an example of push-pull-polls and the article itself was so biased against the Republicans it was virtually worthless. (Wikipedia.) Here’s an example:
Question: Would you rather have an abortion provider who uses a coat hanger or would you prefer abortions conducted in hospitals?
Not a hard question. But they took the answers and said women support abortions. Pollsters don’t ask about abortion these days because the overwhelming majority oppose them. Biased questions are becoming more obvious.
Lying to oneself, lying to voters
It is this type of lying to oneself and others that created the 2014 election. Voters have no real motivation to take polls or to believe them when they are the product of psychologists and self-interested parties, such as news media, labor unions, or groups promoting some form of lifestyle. They make the results of all polls worthless in the public mind. More and more voters refuse to respond to pollsters for this reason, or have a good time giving wrong opinions in order to trick the pollsters.
Elitist polls were wrong
So you can guess what happened in 1932. They only polled voters with enough money to afford the high priced phones. The pollster predicted Hoover to win and of course he was wrong. (He also disappeared.) The people who had no job, no phone, no car and no hope voted for the man they thought could turn things around. FDR proved himself to a generation of voters. Will the Republicans realize the opportunity they were given, or are they stuck in their ivory palaces of isolation and ease. We shall see.
As for us? People who listen to others tell them “about” God may never know Him personally. New Christians need basic information but older believers should allow themselves to talk to all kinds of Christians. Heaven and hell is not a matter of how many people believe someone’s opinion; voting on God does not get anyone to heaven, nor does another’s vote keep anyone out.
And God is not a democrat (with a small d) either. God is a benevolent dictator and if you see the polls on God, most folks don’t really like Him. No matter. His word reigns supreme.
In all controversies the Bible is the arbiter. Spend your time with people who know God, or better still with God Himself. And you will not be caught believing or living in error.
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©CorneliaScottCree.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission, from this blog’s author and/or owner, is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to CorneliaScottCree.com. Thank you for cooperating in the effort to give glory to God.