On Governing by Polls

A view from experience

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Since my entering in the NH House of Representatives I’ve learned that, while people are surely ideological, politicians tend to place their ideology as a secondary consideration to, simply, doing what they think the people want. I refer to this as “governing by poll,” and it’s a critical failure mechanism for the political Right. The mistakes in this strategy are many, as it gives up our leadership role to the supposed “body politic,” and it introduces rather obvious control mechanisms for bad actors.

On the first subject – the abdication of our responsibility to lead from the front and live out our oath in governance – we lean into the philosophy of Rousseau in hypothesizing (or prophesying) that the will of the majority at any given moment represents the will of the zeitgeist, and perfect representation of the path for Progress. This presumption lends the worst aspects of “democracy,” namely the tendency for the majority to oppress the minority, to a purportedly Republican system of representation. The very real effect is enabling the oppression of our own base, and violating our oaths, in service of this zeitgeist. If none of this sounds remotely like what a “Christian Conservative” should be up to – yep, it’s definitely not.

In the second consideration, “governance by poll” allows for the manipulation of both data and the population at large to achieve specific outcomes. First, in the data itself, the polling can be (and often is) corrupted by framing questions in a biased manner, bias in the sample – see how often to avowed Progressives or Democrats severely outnumber Conservatives polled – and presentation of the data in a skewed manner. This means that at every step, from design, to collection, to public or private presentation there is opportunity to make the data say, basically, whatever one wants it to say – whatever they need it to say to support the policy they are advancing.

Lastly, we must touch on Plato’s “Republic.” In this work, book eight specifically and if I recall correctly, Plato outlined the nature of a “democracy.” Reading his description, and with an eye to the fact that the “demos” of “democracy” is more reasonably read as “demographic” than “the people,” Plato describes that by “noble lies,” and strict narrative control through mythmaking, education, censorship, and prosecution of heresy a perfect control might be had over the various demographics of a society. Thereby a perfect control of democratic sentiment might be achieved through the application of a divide-and-conquer strategy that pits various identity groups against one another, while appeasing the “majority” through handing out scraps stolen from the minority.

We would be utterly foolish to not see this model playing out in todays media environment, with the “noble lies” of the Progressives meant to drive everything from reducing CO2 emissions to increasing vaccine uptake, the revolving door between the intelligence agencies and the news corporations, and the serial execution of information warfare operations surrounding various interest groups (from racial to national to biological). Our elites have captured the bulk of the information space, and with it they hold a beachhead in the majority of minds in this nation.

Governing by poll is therefore a defeat mechanism. It is utilized at every conceivable step by political warfare operators, bad actors and grifters to sway the political process away from true justice, ordered liberty, and the good. We must lead from the front and take the risks of going against the grain in order to give the lie to the “zeitgeist.” There is no perfect path of Progress, there is no Spirit driving towards a teleological end of History and utopia. Discard the Theosophical nonsense, take up our cross and bear it. Ours is the time for boldness in leadership to reclaim our republic – I believe our base will reward these efforts with loyalty.

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Michael Belcher lives in New Hampshire where he serves as an elected Representative to the NH House, leads the Counterspell Group, and operates a modest homestead in the mountains.  He can be found on X @MikeBelcher14 or at his website: https://counterspellgroup.com/