Among the tactics that progressives use to support their coercive, interventionist programs is to get pollsters to ask people what they think about those programs, with the pitch designed to elicit favorable responses. Those polls are then cited as proof that the interventions are popular.

In his latest Bastiat’s Window post, Bob Graboyes takes a dim view of that.

Bob begins:

Years ago, a left-of-center American doctor I know vacationed in a European country and told me that his faith in government-provided healthcare was reinforced by conversations he had while traveling: “Folks I spoke with seemed very pleased with their healthcare system.” I pointed out that all his interlocutors were fellow guests in the upper-tier inns where he stayed — not members of lower socioeconomic castes whose healthcare experiences might be very different. I did add that it’s entirely possible that poorer citizens might still have proven just as enthusiastic, not because the healthcare system was actually good, but rather because people in that country tend to respond happily to pollsters on any question.

Yes, this is a poor basis for drawing any conclusions about government policies, but it “works” for the Left. How often have we heard that we ought to have a single-payer health-care system here because such a system is so popular in Canada and the U.K.?