Not necessarily because of the specific issue, but I'm really keen on polls with this breakdown:
But while 76% of Mainstream voters think the United States should continue to build the fence, 67% of the Political Class are opposed to it.We need a constant stream of polls showing "N% of the general electorate has this view, X% of the political class believes the opposite."
Not because the majority is always right, but because it's absolutely critical to repeatedly demonstrate on a range of issues how detached the governing class is from the people they govern, how alienated they are from the society they rule.
Which is also why, alas, such breakdowns are unlikely to get widespread mention in the Official Press.
On this one I actually agree with the majority of the country, but "to fence, or not to fence" is not actually the point here. I'm sure there are issues where I'll disagree with the majority of the electorate, and agree with the governing class (though prolly not many issues), and several where I'll think both are wrong. But still I think that, even where I think the majority is wrong, putting in everyone's face the fact that the disconnect between the governed and the governing class has become so vast is an absolute precondition to addressing a lot of the problems we have. I don't think the majority is always right, but I do think it will be...informative...for the majority to learn so decisively how often their leaders think they're wrong. Then we can all decide through democratic vote which group is really the most fsk'd up.
Lustration to follow! épuration légale!
Its even worse than that- the current game (and Bush started this one) is to spend five times more than is necessary to build a 'virtual fence' (if you could only hear the disdain in my tone on that term) that (I would argue) was designed not to work. This idea of spending tens of billions to let juiced tech company buddies play laser tag in the desert with suspect technology that entirely reinvents the wheel has only one real objective- look busy but don't rock the boat.
Its bad enough that the ruling class ignores us so blatantly, but the fact that they also play is for complete idiots is what really stings. Needless to say, the media arm of the government plays right along.
We are talking about the oldest technology of the nation state known to humanity- digging a ditch and using the dirt to build a wall. The asinine rebuttal that this won't stop all of the crossing (the perfect at the expense of the good argument) is laid down on every nominal suggestion for making it in any way tougher to walk across the border. We need 'comprehensive reform' (there's that tone again, lets just be real and call it another amnesty) because anything else we do is incremental and incremental is (for unexplained reasons) 'bad'. This argument amounts to surrendering to an open border because we can't stop every last coyote.
Is that really how little the elite thinks of us?
"Is that really how little the elite thinks of us?"
On this, and so many other topics,* the answer is: Yes.
*Again, I'm not really making this an argument about border security/the fence this time. It's the broader point.
They call it "Doing the right thing." Often in a loud angry voice. It's especially noble and courageous when you "do the right thing" from the absolute safety of your ultra-gerrymandered district that hasn't elected anybody except people like you for fifty years.
I would vote for that captain from Saving Private Ryan who said, "We're not here to do the right thing, we're here to follow f---g orders."