Don's Tuesday Column

         THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson    Red Bluff Daily News   4/18/2023

Polling data; leftist religious fanaticism

Drawing conclusions, and forecasting elections, based on current polling is the proverbial “fool’s errand”; while pollsters show consistent, formidable leads for Donald Trump over Florida Gov. DeSantis, things could still change.

A YouGov poll found White House Occupant Joe Biden’s approval among Democrats at a solid 81 percent—while, at the same time, only 48% want him to run again. 51 percent of the country believes President Biden’s policies have not benefited the middle class at all (Monmouth University). Only 22 percent believe Biden’s America is headed in the right direction (CIVIQS poll).

Long-time dean of American politics, Michael Barone, in “A Republican edge on issues, but a bigger edge for the party that dumps its 2020 nominee,” reviewed polls. Both Trump and DeSantis beat Biden in several polls but the 2024 election is an eternity away; Biden’s mashed-up “planning to run” statement to NBC’s Al Roker left room for “but…anything could happen.” Do Democrat Governors Walz, Newsom, Polis, or even Bronx’s Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, see a president in the morning mirror?

“Patrick Ruffini of Echelon Insights, analyzing his firm's polling, classifies 25% of Republican voters as ‘Always Trump,’ 15% as ‘Never Trump’ and 60% as up-for-grabs.” Put this writer in the 25% group, but open to the Republican primary voters’ choice.

A SSRS poll, done for CNN (adjust for bias) found cause for confidence, but not triumphalism, for Republicans, as well as cautionary reality-checking for Democrats who believe their own echo-chamber assurances that Americans are embracing progressive, or “woke,” values and candidates.

“So ‘which political party's views are closer to’ yours on each issue? Answer: mostly the Republican Party. On the economy (41%-29%), immigration (40%-30%), crime and policing (40%-28%), government spending (35%-26%) and parents' rights (36%-33%).” Smaller Republican preferences showed up over America’s role in world affairs (35%-32%) and freedom of speech (36%-33%). The Democrat advantage was limited to “social and cultural issues” (36%-33%) and abortion (40%-30%).

Such polling suggests that, for all the blathering by progressive, Democrat leftists about “democracy”— with epithets and accusations that Republicans are undermining, destroying, or perverting said “democracy”—actual voter sentiments are not with “democracy-rejecting” Dems on many issues.

If we were dealing with rational partisans, willing to accept their minority status, and compromise on those issues—Republicans, for instance, are willing to allow for abortions with limits while Democrats mostly oppose any limits—comity and agreement could be easily achieved.

However, for the zealous left—which has simply substituted cultural, environmental, economic and political progressivism (Marxism in all but title) for traditional religion—the will to never compromise, enforce cult-like mental unanimity, see adversaries and opponents as hated purge-able evil, and dismiss contradictory empirical evidence as heresy, has become doctrine.

Among “unquestionable” issues and policies: Renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs) inherit the faith mantle of “beyond dispute” global warming—even as scientific evidence undermines the premises of 1) climate “human-causality,” 2) environmental neutrality of EVs, 3) the impossibility of replacing gas and diesel transport with said EVs or 4) replacing reliable fossil fuel energy with intermittent renewables for home and industrial needs.

Remember forever the quasi-religious imposition of COVID mandates and lockdowns, with glancing deference to actual scientific testing of theories (they were all just theories) about: The virus’s origin; who did—and did not—need to upend and cancel their lives, businesses, education and church practices; the actual efficacy of the vaccines; observable vaccine side effects and health compromises for certain groups (younger and healthy).

We saw such fanatical opinions—absent the scientific rigor applied to any other issue with monumental health ramifications—even on this page. Critics lambasted my advocacy for ideas subsequently proven true. Dutch Member of the European Parliament, Rob Roos, elicited testimony from a Pfizer executive that its COVID vaccine was never tested for transmission; honest scientists and health officials could easily have confirmed the limited immunity afforded to vaccine recipients, and the ability for the vaccinated to transmit COVID.

“Science that cannot be questioned is just propaganda” (MEP Rob Roos). Long-term research, anyone? We’re to accept that nothing could have been done differently? Will future pandemic responses repeat this one?

Quasi-religious zealotry explains the “soft on crime” prosecutors and D.A.s that pursue racial “equity” in prison populations. Massive recidivism of those released; misguided “restorative justice” that turns felonies into misdemeanors; and the collateral damage of murders, rapes, assaults and thefts predictably committed by released criminals—that’s the perverted “justice” legacy of Soros-funded D.A.s and prosecutors.

“America right now is in a perpetual Good Friday: there is darkness that is spreading across the land. The foundations of our Constitutional Republic are being shaken…destroyed. [The destroyers] believe that the United States is finished, that their fundamental transformation has been completed. The purveyors of hate, evil, and wrongdoing…rejoice at the death and burial of this great Constitutional Republic…

“There is an American resurrection coming because there is an American awakening. This resurrection will bring about a reconciliation to our founding principles. There will be a restoration of respect and regard for our rule of law. There is a spirit of courage, determination, and will arising across the nation” (“An American Resurrection” by Allen West).