By Stephanie Ramage
Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, we called it “the silent majority,” the massive conservative vote that never failed to stun the media and the Democrats.
The “silent majority” is made up of the people who don’t answer the phone if they don’t know who’s calling, so you’ll never get their input on a telephone survey. They’re the people who work for a living, so they’re not home when the pollsters call or they’re asleep—following working the night-shift—and they have the phone turned off. They’re the people who can’t be bothered with the smut and silliness of the Internet—they have kids, jobs, community or church obligations—so you won’t get their opinion from online surveys, either. They have lives, and their views on today’s presidential election have not been reflected in the polls. Polling technology has indeed advanced, but as it has advanced, a lot of busy people have simply become more adept at avoiding pollsters.
The media has largely been foretelling a victory for Democrat Sen. Barack Obama since last spring (even when Democrat Hillary Clinton was still in the race) based on polls that mostly gather the opinions of the retired, the unemployed, or the not-otherwise-engaged who answer the phone or do online surveys. Anyone who's spent much time online knows that people who seek to anonymously voice their opinion on the Web tend to be angry. A “change” would certainly appeal to people who aren’t happy with their own lives.
Those of us who work our butts off and don’t expect any favors from anyone know that change doesn’t come in the form of a president, it comes in the form of policies and Sen. John McCain’s policies would bring about a change for the better: tax breaks for businesses so they can employ more people; cost cuts on medical products and services so that regardless of coverage it’s more affordable for more people and won’t break the country; a sea-change of improvements for those with special needs, including the mentally ill; more and better energy research and development, including nuclear energy—something that Obama is opposed to, as his opposition to nuclear waste disposal clearly shows; after all, you can’t very well generate it, if you don’t have a safe place to put the waste—and a flat tax alternative for those of us who are sick of paying accountants hundreds of dollars every year to do our taxes for us because we’re terrified of making a mistake. John McCain means more jobs, more affordable health care, more plentiful, safe forms of energy that will reduce global warming, and a simpler tax system for everyone.
This election isn’t over until it’s over. If Obama wins, it won’t be by the landslide that so many have predicted. The thing that will be most astonishing to many of those on the left is the very thing that history should have prepared them for: the loud election-day voice of the silent majority.