The average voter is pretty easy to manipulate. All major news outlets are masters at it. One reason Obama won was that he and his team was better at it than Romney and his team.
I remember a public opinion poll I read years ago. They asked two questions that you would think would have the same answer. The first question was, "Is Abortion murder?" The second question was, "Should a woman have the right to have an abortion?" In this survey both answers got a high percentage of the "vote." In fact 17% of those surveyed thought that abortion was murder and should be allowed. Note that they were not asked that question, it is the result of comparing the two answers and subtracting.
While this is somewhat incoherent, I find myself in that percentage. The reason is the fictional quote I blogged about yesterday. Livia, the wife of Roman Emperor Augustus and mother and grandmother of emperors:
And it’s no use arguing with you republicans. You refuse to see that one can no more reintroduce republican government at this stage than one can reimpose primitive feelings of chastity on modern wives and husbands. It’s like trying to turn the shadow back on the sundial: it can’t be done.
Instead of preaching that abortion foes get together and vote, instead I suggest that the preachers try to actually convince the hearts and minds of the people. This is a lot harder. It would require a whole generation of preachers to approach the subject differently. I have blogged about this before.
But while I do not plan to hold my breath as I wait for preachers to abandon salvation by politics for salvation by Jesus, if I did I would die, I hope to do my part by continuing to talk about how "the powers that be" work.
One way they control the people is through fake opinion polls. How this works is described, far better than I could do, in the British Sitcom, Yes, Minister.