Dakota Beacon

Americans' perception of reality does not always align with the facts. Viewing TV shows and commercials, movies, and blogs shape public perception. Alas, our viewing habits fill us with questionable discernment. On that basis, politicians and bureaucrats regard skewed perceptions as fact. They make decisions accordingly. Skewed perceptions aid them in justifying policy decisions.

Consider recent presidential election polling in advance of the national elections.

2000 Election. MEDIA FICTION: “… swing voters prefer Gore to Bush by 37-28 percent…” Pew Research, 10/30/2000, just days before the election. 

FACT: George Bush            Popular Vote             47.9%             Electoral College      271

            Al Gore                       Popular Vote             48.4%             Electoral College     266

2004 Election. MEDIA FICTION: “A Kerry Landslide?” by Chuck Todd, Washington Monthly, 5/1/2004. “If you look at key indicators…it’s going to be Kerry in a rout.”

FACT: George Bush            Popular Vote             50.7%             Electoral College     286

            John Kerry                 Popular Vote             48.3%             Electoral College     251

2008 Election MEDIA FICTION: Two months before the election (9/8/2008) the UK Daily Telegraph reported “ At this point, it looks as if Obama’s more on the ropes than McCain.”

FACT: Barack Obama          Popular Vote             52.9%             Electoral College     365

            John McCain            Popular Vote             45.7%             Electoral College     173

2012 Election MEDIA FICTION: More disinformation with different results.

FACT: Barack Obama          Popular Vote             51.1%             Electoral College     332

            Mitt Romney             Popular Vote             47.2%             Electoral College     206

2016 Election MEDIA FICTION: Ditto. Who knew?

FACT: Donald Trump           Popular Vote             46.1%             Electoral College     304

            Hillary Clinton           Popular Vote             48.2%             Electoral College     227

Gone are the days of so-called objective reporting. The media mission today is to assist in suppressing voter turnout for the opposition while building voter support for their own candidate. Let the voter beware. What if public perceptions were intentionally distorted for hidden motives? Public attitudes could be conditioned, or “pushed” – especially by politicians and interest groups forcing an agenda not popular with voters. Ergo, the term “push polling.”

Agendas of small, obscure but vocal minorities have aided in generating public policy. Such questionable policies were developed under the illusion of broad public support when in fact most of the public remained blissfully ignorant of the illusory endgame. This happens by design when push polling employs the fundamentals of the Delphi Technique.

In the late 1950s the RAND Corporation developed a legitimate decision-making tool, the Delphi Technique, used to analyze input from subject-matter experts. This provided the basis for reaching an optimum decision based upon forecasted outcomes. As a forecasting technique, it predicted technological developments using repeated iterations of estimates and feedback from experts until consensus occurred. The technique was applied to such diverse activities as software development cost-estimations, decision-making at the National Cancer Institute, and forecasting of US financial markets.

Over the years, the Delphi Technique migrated from RAND’s original intent of a forecasting tool to a tool for modeling consensus. What was once used as a decision-making tool could now be used abusively as a tool for building consensus around a pre-determined outcome -- or push polling.

Currently, push polling using fundamentals of the Delphi Technique can guide a targeted audience to a pre-determined outcome while giving the illusion of public support. Politicians may use the technique, supported by the legacy media, to underwrite a public policy. Repeated polling of a target audience measures the effectiveness of the message. Messaging may then be adjusted until the target is “ripe.” The administrative state, in collusion with the media, grooms a population for complicity in a guided response.

We have become gullible and easy prey for fraud. The media reinforces our minds with fantasies and untruths shielding us from thinking for ourselves. We have been conned and our administrative state uses our weaknesses against us to their advantage.

Really? Let not your heart be troubled. Ultimately the American voter is not stupid and woe to politician who bases their campaign upon this premise.

Remember. November 3rd is coming. Take a registered legal citizen with you to vote.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).