Poll: 77% of Conservatives Afraid to Say What They Think
Jul 27, 2020
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, have you seen the story? Everybody that has a show talked about this last week. And of course I didn’t get a chance to talk about it last week because even though I have a show, I wasn’t here. And it was the story about how many people are afraid to be honest about what they believe except liberals. Liberals feel totally comfortable telling anybody what they believe because they know that nothing is gonna happen to ’em. But pretty much everybody else is scared to death to be honest about what they believe, including the pollsters.
Here’s the story. And it’s from The Cato Institute, which is a Libertarian think tank. Headline: “Poll: 62% of Americans Say They Have Political Views They’re Afraid to Share.†Now, you’ve heard this story, if you watch any kind of news, but you’ve not heard my take on it, so effectively you haven’t heard the story.
“Sixty-two percent of Americans say they have political views they’re afraid to share.†I think it’s probably higher than that, particularly when people are talking to pollsters. “Fifty percent of strong liberals support firing Trump donors. Thirty-six percent of strong conservatives support firing Biden donors. Thirty-two percent are worried about missing out on job opportunities because of their political opinions.â€
Now, there’s one group that is not afraid to tell anybody what they think, and that is strong liberals. And the reason that strong liberals think they can spout off is directly tied to the media. If they’re echoing the media, they are safe. If they’re echoing the media, they’re echoing conventional wisdom and they are safe. And they are made to feel as though they are in the majority. If they reflect what they see on Twitter, which is not America, but a lot of liberals think it is, then it gives them confidence.
“Fifty-eight percent of staunch liberals feel they can say what they believe. However, centrist liberals feel differently. A slim majority, 52% of liberals, feel they have to self-censor, as do 64% of moderates.†Can you believe, 64% of moderates think they have to censor themselves? “Seventy-seven percent of conservatives feel they have to self-censor.†That right there is all you need to know about how wrong presidential polling is right now.
If, by definition, 77% of Republicans, conservatives, Trump voters are afraid to tell people what they really think, then the pollsters are getting lousy data in and they’re producing lousy polling results out. “This demonstrates that political expression is an issue that divides the Democratic coalition between centrist Democrats and their left flank.†Even supposed centrist Democrats are afraid of the radical left.
Now, The Cato Institute thinks the story is that the left is divided. “Liberals are divided on political expression. Strong liberals stand out, however, as the only political group who feel they can express themselves.†That’s not the story. The story here is 77% of conservatives are essentially afraid to tell people what they really think. Seventy-seven percent. And it may be higher than that.
How many of them were honest even in this poll. It may be 80, it may be 80% are afraid to tell people what they think. By the way, I happen to believe it. I’m not surprised by it. I run into conservatives all the time who want me to shut up if they’re around me, much less express their own opinions. They’re afraid. Literally afraid. They don’t want the hassle. They don’t want the controversy. They don’t want the discomfort.
And so they either don’t express an opinion and try to make it look like they’re apathetic examine therefore no threat or they lie and try to make it look like they are anti-Trump. Because the safest behavioral mode when you are in the company of liberals, the safest behavioral mode is to be anti-Trump.
Now, you extrapolate all this into polling data, and, you know, every time on this program, every time I make mention of the fact that I think there’s this — and it’s not just me — that there’s this massive silent majority out there that is so pro-Trump it may be even bigger than it was in 2016, you would not believe the number of emails I get from people, “You’re right. You’re right. Don’t let go of this. This is the biggest unreported story.â€
It is the silent majority and how much in favor of Trump they are but are afraid to say. It’s kind of shocking, in a way. But it also means that these people do not want to engage. They don’t want to engage the left. They’re waiting for somebody else to do it. And that somebody else is Trump. Or maybe elected Republicans.
So as all the statues come down and all of American history is attempted to be erased, the people steadfastly opposed to this, the people universally outraged by it don’t say a word. And thus make it appear that there’s no opposition to what the left is doing. And the media capitalizes on that like you can’t believe.
The media capitalizes on the notion that a majority of Americans agrees with everything Black Lives Matter and Antifa are saying. That’s what not pushing back looks like. So it’s not that there is a divide among the left. It is that 77% of conservatives self-censor themselves because they’re afraid. I’m not commenting on whether it’s bad, good, indifferent, whatever to be afraid. I’m just acknowledging that it is fear.
