Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.

Let’s think outside the box. There must be a better way to measure public opinion than today’s polling methods conducted by such groups as Gallup, Rasmussen, Reuters, Quinnipiac, Monmouth and Harvard-Harris. Each of these polling organizations practices a variety of methods to ask questions of the public about hot-potato political issues of the day like — for instance — President Donald Trump’s job approval rating. They take a survey sample of ‘likely voters’ – usually at least 600 up to 3,000 or so. But there’s something wrong here.

Pollsters often end up being way off base. Remember back when Hillary Clinton had a 93-percent chance of winning the presidency? Each of these pollsters has their own political leanings that’s why Real Clear Politics average the polls together for their own polling averages which many news agencies use. These polling survey groups are suspect in that they keep asking the same people the same questions. They say they don’t, but they must. Conducting weekly or monthly surveys of 3,000 different people is time consuming, labor intensive and expensive. People lie on polls conducted blindly on landline telephones which are disappearing faster than a hundred-dollar bill in a trailer park. There are no directories of smartphone users like the outdated white pages telephone directories with name, address and phone number. Imagine trying to keep a cell-phone directory like that up to date. Ask yourself have you ever met anyone that participates in these political polls that get reported endlessly on mainstream media?

Here’s an idea that has come of age. Technology contains the answer that would put professional pollsters out of business. Poll the people directly on simulcast national television and social media using interactive tools of the internet linked directly to personal computers, laptops and smart phones. Limit the locations from which devices can be accepted — meaning only in the USA. Each device has its own signature or footprint which means each device could respond one time for each question. Imagine uniting the country for an hour on mainstream media networks in prime time and ask the public easy to understand straight-up questions with ‘multiple-choice’ or ‘yes & no’ answers. Broadcast the incoming answers instantly in real time and do this every six months. On a website –perhaps named ‘hear-the-people.com’ – in advance ask the public to submit questions they would like to ask the nation and go from there. During the live nationwide broadcast viewers would go to the ‘hear-the-people.com’ website to post their answers.

Mainstream media should have no input into the content of such an experiment in Democracy. All they need to do is provide or sell those 60-minutes of prime-time-air-time, stay out of the way and let the people speak. Instead of some pollster asking 3,000 people ask the nation and get millions of answers. Most assuredly actual political trends would be identified.

Seeing the results come in live on national TV could be quite exciting by revealing at that moment what people really think about any issue. Everyone would be watching especially all those in that Washington swamp – home to numerous critters, creatures and varmints. In an hour’s time ask 10 questions that are left and right leaning and then sit back, up your feet up, have some buttered popcorn, drink a few beers and watch it play out. The final answers would be scrutinized, criticized and analyzed for months by mainstream media, political commentators, print publications and high-level political think tanks. Public sentiment would not be blinded by demographic age groups, income levels, education, gender, sexual preference or race – none of that matters! What does matter is your opinion.

The public’s image of mainstream media would improve greatly if they got behind such a new way of mass communication and harness this opportunity by allowing it to happen. This would be good for everyone except the pollsters.

Who would put together such a program? One place to look would be the non-partisan League of Women Voters who years ago produced fair and balanced presidential debates on live national TV but those duties were taken over by mainstream media and the Commission on Presidential Debates. Currently the LWV – which formed in 1920 when women gained the right to vote — has more than 1,000 chapters nationwide. Having a group like LWV conduct the program would quiet down those critics that would claim it to be a nothing more than a reality TV stunt.

Imagine asking the nation these 10 questions on 10 different subjects:

Are California, Illinois and New York too liberal – yes or no?
Should President Trump’s proposed Mexico/USA border wall be funded and built – yes or no?
Is the new Tax-Cut Bill good for Americans – yes or no?
Do you support President Trump — yes or no?
Do you want stricter immigration laws – yes or no?
Do you support government sponsored single-payer healthcare – yes or no?
How would you rate the U.S. Congress? – A. Excellent, B. Good, C. Fair, D. Poor, E. Worthless.
Should term limits be imposed on the U.S. Congress – yes or no?
Should the United Nations relocate from New York City to Paris – yes or no?
Should the U.S. Supreme Court revisit abortion – yes or no?

During this hour — on TV and on the ‘hear-the-people.com’ website — there should be few references to Republicans, Democrats or Independents. Keep it issue and policy oriented and let the questions and answers from the general public tell each of these demographic groups what’s on the minds of citizens every six months. Perhaps this idea will catch on because today’s technology makes it possible to conduct national polls with instant results. The people deserve not to be told by some pollster what a small group of unidentified people think about anything.

Doing something like this would open a whole new chapter in hands-on, grassroots Democracy. It would be bold, visionary and unpredictable — a truer snapshot in time using today’s hi-tech tools. Let the public sway public opinion not the media. Just like President Trump takes his case directly to the American people using social media, it’s time to retire all those pollsters and take it straight to ‘We the People … By the People … For the People’ and let the pulse of the people be heard.

 

About the Author Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.