What’s In It For Me?

The first political poll in the U.S. was conducted in 1824. People were asked which Presidential candidate they preferred, Andrew Jackson or John Quincy Adams. The results showed Jackson as the people’s choice. (But Adams won the election.) In recent years, pre-election polls have emerged as highly important campaign strategy tools. The idea of testing the waters by means of polling is not new. What is new is the level of sophistication they have reached in the computer age. The techniques for cross-checking public opinion have become so highly complex it requires a mathematical wizard to organize a major poll. Theoretically, at least, these added resources enable candidates for high public office to acquire enormously detailed information on who supports them and why. But, when all the information is distilled and digested, one’s loyal supporters are, in general, either of two kinds. There are those whose loyalty is motivated by the public interest, and those whose loyalty is motivated by self-interest. For the former, the…