all whites are not racist homophobes, all religious people are not fascist goons, and all american jews are not zionists...
polls reveal truth for believers and pass it off as science, but science of any kind involves belief in a system, and polling works wonders in a system like ours...you can get one to prove just about anything, if you're willing to pay for it, design a survey and number crunch the results to one advantage or another...
for the "we are all reactionary morons" brigade, a poll was taken during the bicentennial year and it revealed a progressive, left wing, near socialist support for social democratic policies among americans...the poll was paid for by people who were of a progressive bent, and so it asked questions in a way that allowed folks to approve of the social policies most americans might indeed, support, if they were addressed in that way...
but the major area for polling is market research and product buying inclinations and how they can be induced...politics is a part of that, of course, but just as you can sell people shit - and that is people with lots of professional class money, as well, since they can afford to buy more shit - in the major market place, its done in the political strip mall as well... we can learn from the mall and the market, and we can learn from the poll...
but not much beyond what we want to believe...
fs