Disrespecting the “Will of the People”

Over the weekend, Sarah Palin announced that she would be campaigning for Paul Ryan’s opponent, Paul Nehlen, in the upcoming Wisconsin GOP Primary election.

“His political career is over but for a miracle because he has so disrespected the will of the people, and as the leader of the GOP, the convention, certainly, he is to remain neutral, and for him to already come out and say who he will not support is not a wise decision of his,” Palin said of Ryan in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

I have noticed a number of people using the phrase “the will of the people” to make the populist case and was wondering who are these people being disrespected.

According to the latest Gallup polling information 31% of the voters identify as Democrats, 29% identifying as Republicans and 38% think of themselves as independents. Gallup further found that many independents leaned towards one of the two parties and with that data the percentages broke 45% Democrat, 45% Republican and the other 10% as truly independent or one of the 3rd parties.

At this point let’s be generous and assume that Donald Trump won 50% of all the GOP ballots cast thus far in the primaries and caucuses. So I think we are ready to name the “will of the people” – at most 22.5% of all eligible voters.

So the next time Palin, Clinton or another political “has been” talks about the “will of the people” keep in mind they are referring to a small number of voters who agree with them and not necessarily the majority of the American voters.

 

18 Comments

Add a Comment