Scott Rasmussen: The American People Want an Advocate - RightOnline 2012

Dr. Bill Smith, Editor: Where would bloggers, politicians, and activist groups be without pollsters?   As readers of this site know, I often reference and am indebted to  Rasmussen Reports. Therefore, I was more than pleased to be present to listen to Scott Rasmussen as the keynote dinner speaker on June16th at the  RightOnline 2012 conference in Las Vegas, NV.

I took lots of notes balancing my notepad on my lap and on the round dinner table where several wonderful people were eating,  listening, taking notes and sending out tweets. As I was transcribing my notes to write an article, I thought, "dang, I wish someone had made a video of Scott Rasmussen's presentation so that readers could hear for themselves the thoughts of  man who makes his living being unbiased and polling the opinions of the American people but who also listens to them, understands them and has a heart's desire for America to live up to the ideals that were meant for it.  In his speech he noted that the 80% of the American people still believe in the ideals upon which America was founded and they want an advocate or advocates, not politicians, who will take on the political class running and ruining our country.

Fortunately, I learned today that Richard Sincere had made a video of the the speech and posted it to his YouTube account. Richard is a conservative reporter whose articles have appeared in the Liberty magazine, the Houston Chronicle, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Wall Street Journal, Washington Examiner, and Washington Times. You can read his interview of Scott Rasmussen in the following article: "Rasmussen Reports founder discusses opinion trends, future of polling methods.

Thank you Richard for posting this video.  After the video, I have posted some Scott Rasmussen's comments from his speech.


Below are comments by Scott Rasmussen in his presentation.  He depicted, with words, the shifting dynamics in communication in America, the shift that the people will demand of their government, and the hopes of the American people.  Next time you read the Rasmussen Reports, you will now know there is a philosopher and concerned American behind those numbers and words.

~ Whoever wins this year is going to claim a great mandate for their side. . . . that statement will be false.
~ This election is going to be like the trench warfare of WW1. That was the war fought to end all wars . . . all they did was set the stage for a bigger war 20 years later.
~ It will be the communications, the battles and the public opinions shifts that take place after the elections that will determines where America goes.
~ I bet everyone underestimates how the new media is going to change things. You don't have a clue of how big the changes are coming will be.
~ Sometimes people who work in the political world get so wrapped up in politics that most Americans live in different worlds. [The real world.]
~ The New Media is changing America; it is changing everything about our society.
~ In the next 10 years, it will fundamentally change the relationship between the American people and their government.
~ In this world, public opinion drives everything else in the political world.
~ The American people are always ahead of their politicians. They always see the changes coming and what needs to happen first.
~ Public opinion moves first, then there is a catalyst, and only after that do the politicians get involved.
~ The financial industry bailouts remain the most hated piece of legislation in modern American history. . . . That spun off the Tea Party movement and the Occupy movement.
~ There is a sense of frustration, in 2006, 2008, and 2010, the votes did the same thing every election, they voted against the political party in power. It wasn't because they loved republican on e year and democrats the next year, they just wanted to throw out whoever was in charge. Because bluntly they don't think either side has a clue.
~ One of the mistakes we make in politics is that we think everyone is watching the game. That just isn't true.
~ If you want to change the country, you need to reach those people.
~ If you want to reach the people find out what is popular to the people.
~ If you don't find a way to get a better message out, your going to loose them.
~ In this process, the government is not in charge, the government does not run the country. If it is functioning properly, the government plays a nice support role in a self-governing society.
~ Think of government as a "free rider" that is riding along with whatever society does.
~ In 1941, when FDR gave a speech on the radio about WWII, there were 130 billion people in the country, an estimated 90 million listened to the presidents speech.
~ When Jimmy Carter was in the White House and gave his speech, everybody watch because those of us who wanted to watch "Charlie's Angles" had to wait because they wouldn't start the show until he President's speech was done.
~ But then, stations started carrying other things other than the president's speech. Now when Barack Obama gives a speech, 37 million people tune in. And their mostly partisan Democrats. Same thing thing when George Bush gave a speech - the partisan Republicans listened.
~ That means that it is very difficult to get a central message out the way it used to.
~ How do you get the message out on limited government; let's start with the fact that nobody in America cares about limited government. They care about the kind of society that limited government creates.
~ People are pragmatic. They want to hear about results. . . . So when you begin to push a message out focus on how it impacts life in the real world. And recognize as it gets sent along in all those tweets and different chains of communications to the end user, it will get changed a lot. But the tone of it matters at least as much as the content.
~ With this new media world and people exchanging information like they do, there is simply no way a centralized government can survive like has in the past several decades.
~ The changes we are going to see in the next decade will bring about the first significant spending cuts; I am talking real spending cuts, not reducing the growth of spending at the Federal level; Real spending cuts at the Federal level more than in five decades.
~ Even more than that it will be a a shift in the role of government and that is something that is painful to achieve. Every time you shift power and money from one group to another, the group losing power and money fights back.
~ The Political Class is not going to say that the public thinks we should be spending less and taxing less so we are going to give up our money.It will be an ugly, ugly fight.
~ I am optimistic about America's future, because the American people are ahed of their politicians and I trust the judgement of the American people far more than I trust any elected politician in America.
~ I am also optimist because I believe the American people have a good sense as to what is needed.
~ It going to difficult and some discomfort.
~ 81% of Americans believe that we are endowed with certain inalienable rights including the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
~ 77% of Americans believe a free market economy is better than a government managed economy.
~ 6 out 10 believe that when our nation is living up to our ideals we are the last best hope for mankind.
~ Americans believe in the principles and ideals that our country was founded upon.
~ What people need to do is what Dr. Martin Luther King did, America needs to live up to those ideals in good times and bad. We need to promote a message to become what they were supposed to be.
~ When people talk about politics they are not looking for a checklists ... the are looking for an advocate for the American people. . . a person who will take their views and opinions and make the political class surrender.

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