There was once a rather important part of politics and Good Government, called the “let’s get a report card,” or telephone polling. You can see it in some of the episodes of West Wing, for example and other political / pseudo-political fiction and docu-dramas.
BUT… that was before all this scam / spam / fake phone call stuff started. Who answers unsolicited phone calls now? Who answers calls from unknown phone numbers? Some do, but by no means everyone.
If they are still doing political opinion phone surveys(1), then these surveys are even less accurate than before. Here’s the problem:
Only those who answer unknown phone calls and then stick through the survey get counted. Increasing numbers of people do not answer phone calls from unknown callers. Secondly, there is a rise in fake surveys, so that you don’t know if the caller is what he claims to be. “This is a call on behalf of President Blah-Blah; we’d like to ask a couple questions.” “Yeah, sure you are!” Slam!
So, accurate or not as the surveys were before, they are surely even less accurate now. Do our legislative leaders make decisions based on such things? We should all hope not.
What can you do? Express yourself freely to your state and federal representatives, to Congress as a whole and to the President. Don’t wait for a survey that most likely will never call you (statically speaking, that is) and that you most likely won’t answer when they do call anyway (statistically speaking, of course). Look up on the internet how to contact your legislators. City, County, State and Federal. The closer to you they are (City / County) the more impact your opinion has, by the way.
Phone surveys… obsolete, yes?
Is government still using them as a Primary Source of public opinion? I hope note.
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(1) I ask this as a question because in my entire life I’ve had exactly one such phone call myself, and that was 30 years ago. I could probably look it up, if I could trust any internet answers to political questions. (Yes, that’s sarcasm.)