Fake Views: How Establishment Media Use Flawed ‘Approval Polls’ to Attack Trump

"Polls are deployed only when they might prove useful — that is, helpful to the powers that be in their question to maintain their position and influence."
— Christopher Hitchens, Harper’s Magazine, 1992

The latest rod with which to beat the President of the United States is a Washington Post/ABC News poll showing Mr. Trump’s approval ratings languishing at 36 per cent.

Americans across the board appear, on first take, to be well out of love with the new President. But the “small print” on the polls reveals something quite disturbing about the methodology of the group responsible.

The poll was performed by AbtAssociates — a swamp dweller-staffed research and policy shop in Cambridge, MA.

AbtAssociates board members include former Bob Dole, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Planned Parenthood, World Bank, and Deloitte staffers. In other words, it is a microcosm of the party of Davos.

But that in itself doesn’t rule AbtAssociates out from doing decent work. What might, however, is the underlying philosophy behind political polling, and the methodology they use to conduct it.

MADNESS IN THE METHOD