Public-opinion polls show that 83 percent of readers will love this column, 2 percent won’t like it, and 15 percent will use it to line the cat box.
Of course, I made all of that up; surely the love rate for my columns is in the high 90s. Isn’t it? I simply felt the need to embrace the modern ethos that says every public opinion can be quantified by percentages that then are presented as unquestioned facts.
Hey, if it works for our political process, then certainly it’s good enough to measure the tastes of The Columbian’s readers. And, as a cursory glance at the cable news networks at any time on any day reveals, our political process is being overrun by polls. There are headlines telling us what the latest polls think of Donald Trump, or what they think of Hillary Clinton’s emails, or how many people believe Ted Cruz is from the planet Krypton. Trust me, if pollsters asked “Do you agree that Ted Cruz is from the planet Krypton?,” plenty of people would answer in the affirmative to avoid appearing ill-informed.
All of which is interesting, considering that Jill Lepore wrote recently for New Yorker magazine, that “A 2013 study — a poll — found that three out of four Americans suspect polls of bias.”