Jay Kuo: Weaponized Polling Is More Dangerous Than Ever

https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/2024-trump-red-wave-polls

Election analyst Simon Rosenberg recently noted that of the last 15 general election polls released for Pennsylvania, a state viewed by both sides as key to any electoral victory, 12 have right-wing or GOP affiliations.

Rosenberg warned,

“Their campaign to game the polling averages and make it appear like Trump is winning—when he isn't—escalated in [the] last few days.”

This isn’t the first time the GOP has weaponized polling. In October 2022, right before the midterms, Republican-leaning polls flooded the zone, leading many in the media to predict a “red wave” that would swamp Democrats and turn control of the battleground states, the House, and the Senate over to the GOP.

But the red wave was a manufactured story, and it never crashed ashore. Instead, Democrats (and anti-extremist Republicans) won nearly across the board in the key swing states, gaining one seat in the Senate and only barely losing the House due to poor performance by Democrats in big blue states like New York and California.

Legacy media should be pushing back hard against this narrative, having been bamboozled by it before. Instead, headline after headline is repeating the “vibe” generated by crap, partisan polling: “Trump is on the move, the race is narrowing.”

*snip*