October 20, 2015

Have you ever considered the thought that many, if not most, of our political polls are conducted by major news media, who are part of the broad news monopoly predominantly owned by three gigantic mega corporations? Do you generally accept the polls being daily reported by those media to be beyond reproach? In other words, do you believe in their validity and trust their results?

Consider: most of the polls are based on phone calls to 1,000 Americans. Unless I have misplaced a decimal point, that is 3/100ths of one percent of our total population. Does it seem rational that such an infinitesimally tiny number of Americans at this early stage in the presidential campaign can actually measure and predict anything at all about what we 330,000,000 Americans really believe concerning the candidates and the campaign?

Does the fact that the three media owning corporations are known to be major financial players in all national political races ever cause you to wonder whether their polls are validly created? Do you ever have the slightest sense of doubt about how they are constructed? Do you ever wonder who, exactly, the people are who conduct them? Do ever think that their entirely premature voting predictions may dominantly influence how you and all citizens eventually vote?

Do think that if no polls whatsoever were allowed during political campaigns, and we all had to decide whom to vote for based on substantial issue-oriented debates between candidates, we would more objectively make our voting selections? Do you think that might make political campaigns more representative of us? Might it produce better candidates and more competent elected officials?

From this, my own “Journalistic ‘Literary’ Presidential Candidacy,” I promise you that if you have never considered any of the above and you elect me to The White House, I have a beautiful bridge in Brooklyn I’ll sell you for a dollar. And one in Texas, New Jersey, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Florida, actually in each of the fifty states.

I promise: cross my heart and hope to die, if I don’t. They’re really nice bridges, too.