Polls v. Principles

This was originally written the week of 2013-10-07.  I was watching Fox News and they kept talking about polls.  Precisely, how the Republicans in Congress are at their lowest acceptance in years.  It came to me since when do base our decisions based on popular opinion?

Principle Based Leadership

We live in the era of the Tweet, the Facebook Post, the Internet, the latest Web App, the text message, the video game, and immediate gratification. Is it any wonder that we have a failed Federal Government with no adults in charge? Polls have replaced principles.


Political parties are meaningless. Almost without exception we, the folks, have been abandoned. Leadership is non existent as fleeting as a dark matter nebula. Are you as angry as I am with our national “leaders” and the ever increasing downward spiral of our culture, our economy, and our values?


Before our elected “leaders” commit, they all wait to see the latest polling data. Is this leadership? As a people, we have traded principle for polling data which changes during the next twenty-four hour news cycle. We have traded our political, cultural, and religious birthright for a mess of pottage.


When did we abandon principles for politics? What did we receive in their place—anything of permanence?


Since when did our national “leaders” “govern” on the basis of opinion polls? Where is the leadership? Did our founders stick their fingers in the air to decide to declare independence or to fight the Revolutionary War? What has become of “life, liberty, and our sacred honor”?When did our leaders trade statesmanship for the corruption of politics?


Can you imagine what kind of nation and world we would have if the President of the United States, the Speaker of the House, the Senate Majority Leader, or their confederates were living by principle rather than polls? Can you imagine Patrick Henry saying “...give me liberty, give me death, or is there some other politically correct popular option?”


A change is coming. The winds are blowing. We should readily embrace the return to principle based patriotism.