Aug. 1, 2002

Poll Blues

Here comes that sinking feeling. Every time I read poll results my heart sinks. Why? Do I have any reason to believe them? Is there any reason whatever to think that the same corporate media who try to convince me every day how great "The President" is are to be relied upon when they tell me that a vast majority of the public "approve of the job The President is doing"?

This "presidential approval" I imagine to be a bunch of people telling some faceless voice on the phone, "Oh yeah, yeah, I approve, sure, sure -- Edna would you please pass the mashed potatoes?" But the reports immediately extrapolate it to mean "the president remains personally popular."

By now everything in the country is going to hell: domestic policies, foreign policy, the economy. It's bad news all the time. Hardly anyone is getting left out of the bad news attack except -- who else? The richest 5%, who just happen to be Bush's constituency. So with so much bad news, a report on a poll could hardly maintain any credibility if it said, "Everybody's just so damn happy, they just love this president!" So they finesse it a bit.

A new poll by those great impartial observers of the American scene with no corporate bias CNN and USA Today (see Poll: Republicans Losing Ground) tells us, once again that even though Americans' approval of his handling of the economy has dropped, Bush "remains personally popular." It even says American's approval of his "handling of the corporate scandals" has "edged up" in the last two weeks.

Edged up for what?!? What did Bush do about the the ongoing revelations of major corporate executives stealing millions from the American people? Many of them are closely affiliated and financially entangled with the administration. What did he do? What has changed? The stories change from one corporation to the next, that's all that's changed.

Even as I feel that wave of depression and futility sweep over me when I entertain the notion that a vast majority of Americans like Bush, I know that it is exactly the effect that is sought. The sense of futility transforms almost immediately to apathy. And right across the country people like me one by one are neutralized as political forces.

But even though I know that every word printed in USA Today, or spoken by one of those lying wax dummies on CNN, supports the corporate/Bush agenda, I still keep looking at them hoping to see some reflection of the reality I see -- one very very unhappy country. And I never see it. And every time I see that "The President's personal popularity remains high," my heart sinks. Even though I know it isn't true.

USA today's report on the poll is here.

(For more on polls: see The Hartford Advocate. For more great links where this one came from, check out falloutshelternews.org/)

-- By David Cogswell

Back to Home Page