During the last election cycle, there was a curious phenomenon that crept into public consciousness as polls showed President Obama ahead: “unskewing the polls”. The idea, embraced by (risking the wrath of Michael Shermer) right wing commentators, was that when the polls do not show what you would like them to show, you manipulate the numbers to get the results you want. Idiotic and bizarre as it sounds, the idea, championed by conservative pundit Dean Chambers, gained quite some traction in the political Right. And when Mr. Chambers was proven wrong, well, he blamed everything, from Hurricane Sandy to voter fraud for the “unexpected” outcome, except, of course, his own faulty analysis of data.
You would think that with this kind of a track record, speaking of “skewed polls” would become radioactive, something anyone with a bare minimum of self-respect would like the plague. You would be wrong. Just ask evangelical activist Gary Bauer.
Right-wing evangelical operative Gary Bauer thinks it’s “ludicrous” to say the public “overwhelmingly” supports marriage equality, or at least that’s what he said this weekend on Fox News Sunday.
As Chris Wallace pointed out, the latest ABC-Washington Post survey showed 58 percent of Americans support equality. Just 36 percent are bigots like Bauer. A decade ago, those numbers were reversed.
So how did Bauer respond? “The polls are skewed, Chris.”
Now here is what I want to know. The skeptical community are supposed to be consumer advocates, speaking out against fraud and deception. Are we ever going to have a James Randi or a Michael Shermer calling out Dean Chambers, Gary Bauer and others out on their lies? I am well aware that the Skeptic magazine or JREF would not want to look political. But are we going to allow political correctness get in the way of the truth?
