Thursday, September 06, 2012

Why The Polls Are Wrong ... J. D. Longstreet

Why The Polls Are Wrong
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Here in North Carolina, we are being pummeled by pollsters.  Thank God for caller ID!  All my phones -- land lines and cells -- are listed on the government's "Do Not Call" list and have been since the day the list became active and my area of the country was permitted to register.  So ...  the wife and I pay careful attention to the caller ID when the phones ring ... especially during the crazy season (otherwise known as the "political" season).

Like most Americans (I think) we are fed-up with all the lying and cheating, the flagrant hypocrisy,  the condescension,  the pandering,  and all the, well, you know -- POLITICS!

Gads!  There is no end, anymore, to the political season.  We seem to just segue from one right into another -- a seamless shift from one political campaign to the next -- and on it goes.

So why DO I think the polls are wrong?  It's not that folks haven't made their minds up quite yet.  No, I think, for the most part, voters have decided for whom they will cast their ballot.

No.  I think there is a battle of wills going on within the electorate at the moment.  Allow me to try to offer an example of what I think is happening -- and has already happened.

I think the evangelical Christian community will make a fine example for the purposes of this explanation ... I think.

The evangelical Christians are having a really difficult time with this election.  It's not JUST the evangelicals, but as I was reared an evangelical, I sort of know the inner struggle they are experiencing at this point in this particular election cycle.

Here's the thing, as they say:  They are going to vote for Romney.  But they cannot SAY that yet. In fact, many cannot even admit it to themselves -- yet. 

Look.  Voting for a Mormon is just, well, an act of last resort, an act of desperation, requiring much thought and much prayer, and then some more prayer.

The Mormon faith is thought of by many in the evangelical community as a "cult" not a true Christian church.  To ask an evangelical to vote for a member of a cult as their national leader is asking them to commit the unthinkable.  No doubt, many will feel they are committing a "sin" by casting a ballot for Mr. Romney.

But, things have so spiraled down in America over the past four years, that everything is off kilter.  What should be up is down, what should be down is up. Our country is in deep trouble, the kind of trouble that leads to the total collapse of lesser nations. 

For American evangelicals -- and a huge portion of non- evangelicals and non-religious Americans -- this election will be a choice of the lesser of two evils.

You may laugh, you may scoff, you many stifle a snicker here and there, but, I am telling you the truth.

What this all boils down to is personal courage.  Many voters will be forced to go against their own moral and religious convictions to cast a vote that THEY believe is a last resort to save America from a godless political philosophy, which the Democratic Party and President Obama advocates.  They already know they are going to cast their ballot for Mr. Romney and the republicans because they believe that if the democrats and Mr. Obama are allowed to continue the path they have chosen for America, the country will morph into a godless society and they -- and their religion -- will be, for all intents and purposes, banned.

Many evangelicals believe that America has had a divine mission from its founding and they have a duty to see that America continues to shine as a beacon to the oppressed of the world and as an example of freedom and liberty and what a free god-fearing people can do -- and become.

They sense that mission in jeopardy from Mr. Obama's socialist agenda and and they believe that the protection with which they believe God has blessed this country will be withdrawn if the democrats are allowed to substitute government for God. 

For many evangelicals their decision has been made much easier by the Democratic National Convention this week. They have heard the democrats proclaim that we all belong to government and not to God.  They have seen all mention of God expunged from the Democratic Party's platform. They have seen that same platform refuse to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the nation of Israel.  (On Wednesday both "God" and Jerusalem as Israel's capital were put back into the party platform under rather weird circumstances.  Go here for details:  http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/05/Democrats-change-platform-God-Israel ) They have heard speech after speech endorsing abortion and gay marriage.   

Frankly, many Christians including many evangelicals, and a host of voters who are not necessarily religious, are reeling as the democrats seem to be dropping their facade and openly laying claim to some sort of anti-God, anti-religion, and anti-Israel philosophy they have never seen before, at least in America -- and they are repulsed by it.

So now the evangelicals must weigh what they know of Mr. Romney and the republicans (from their convention) against what they know and have just learned from the democrats themselves (at their convention) concerning the direction they (Obama and the democrats) intend to take America.

As someone more than a little familiar with the Christian faith, as practiced by evangelical Christians, I can tell you -- with no hesitation -- they will perceive Mr. Romney as the lesser threat to their faith -- and their country -- and they will support Mr. Romney at the polls in November.

THESE are the Americans less likely to talk to pollsters about their vote.  These are the people less likely to hold the phone and listen to "push polls."  And finally, these are the people from whom you will hear little -- until November 6th. 

Without input from THEM in the many, many, polls taken on a daily basis now, the results are, well, incomplete, to say the least. 

If ANYONE really gets a boost from the Democratic Party Convention in Charlotte, it now seems clear it will be Mr. Romney and the republicans.

J. D. Longstreet

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