Is Polling Creating a True Democracy?

Our form of government in the United States is a Republic not a Democracy. The key difference is that in a true democracy, majority rules omnipotently. In a republic we have elected representatives that, as the name implies, represent us to form laws and to generally govern. The founding fathers realized the dangers of true democracies and the monarch like powers a majority would have without checks and balances and reason.

So what does polling have to do with this? It seems that our legislators have no back bone (for either party) of their own without checking which way the wind is blowing. Everything is poll driven where the supposed will of the American people is registered. Let me ask you, have you ever been polled? Who are all these people that are our statistical equivalents? I still have not met one. So every politician reads polls. Newspapers create whole stories on the results of the poll. And the public just buys into it without understanding the questions that may have been asked, the sample of people that are polled, or the agenda or motivation of the polling or "news" organization. What is scary is that legislation, policy, and regulations are too often driven by polls and the trends that a poll may show.

So, in reality we are moving towards a true democracy where the will of the majority is driving legislation -- exactly what the founding fathers tried to avoid. Is this too much of a leap that I am making? Ask your congressman when they last voted their conscience and not which way the wind is blowing?