Several things. One, it's hilarious. Especially when Democrats lose their mind when they thought they were going to win and end up losing.
OK. I think I understand your point. Some people lie to the pollsters because they want to make the Democrats feel bad. But I remain confused about how the lying itself actually has that effect. How exactly does lying to a pollster produce this result?
A pollster calls a voter. The Trump voter lies and says he/she will vote for Biden. On Election Day, the voter votes for Trump. That's the behavior.
The pollster reports the pro-Biden result. If enough people do that, the poll will be falsely skewed to show Biden has a lead he does not really have. For example, the poll says Biden has a 10 point lead when in fact he has only a 5 point lead. Or in a more extreme hypothetical case, the poll reports Biden has a 7 point lead when in fact Trump has the 7 point lead. In these cases, false poll numbers are reported, but the number are reported. Breaking News: Poll shows Biden leads Trump by 10 points (or 7, depending on the example).
The immediate effect of lying to the pollster is you help produce the "Biden leads" headline. That's great news for the Biden camp as it helps them raise more funds and attract more support among undecided voters (some voters are influenced by their desire to pick the winner). The positive Biden polling headline clearly helps Biden.
The motivation to lie to make the Democrats feel bad, and then take joy in their pain, requires the liars to believe enough of them are doing this to render the poll false on Election Day. But in fact, they are producing a more immediate result of Biden support, are they not? The pole is wrong but the enthusiasm the report produces is real.
Also, on what basis do the liars believe there are more of them than truth tellers answering the pollsters? What data do they have? It seems to me the answer is none, and they are operating on pure emotion as you described above.
Two, lack of trust in phone polls as truly being anonymous. People don't want their phone numbers associated with the recorded responses. They don't want their responses to become public.
I'm with you there. I don't answer polls for that very reason. But I don't lie. I simply politely tell the caller I decline to participate.
The biggest one, though, is if their information does become public, it's not safe to be a public Trump supporter. There's a fear of reprisal and related detrimental impact to their financial, social and family lives should their political opinions become publicly known. And there's that whole getting shot in the face thing.
Maybe. But I see a whole lot of fearless Trump supporters in my neighborhood and county. Flags, signs and street corner rallies are common.
Finally, I invite readers to think deeply about this. If you tell an intentional lie for the conscious purpose of making a fellow citizen feel bad, what's going on in your heart and mind to make that happen?
Lying is wrong. Getting up in the morning thinking the thing to do is hurt someone else is unhealthy for you. It injects stress hormones into your bloodstream. It crowds other thoughts out of your mind that would be more likely to boost a sense of well beinand happiness. If you take joy in someone else's displeasure, it hurts you more than them.
There was a day when Diane and I caught ourselves doing that very thing. There was a negative headline about the personal failing of a political foe that we celebrated when we read it. When we caught ourselves doing that, we made the decision then and there to get out of politics. Politics will rot your soul if you stay in it too long, I said.
That was the day we decided to get out. At the time, Diane worked in the governors office three doors down from the governor. I had 10 years of intense political activism under my belt. A few months later, we were expediters hauling our very first load.