Popular Opinion Quotes
This was much more the case in 1840 when this quotation was written. Since then, a much higher proportion of American society has become educated, and the cultures that American immigrants have come from had multiplied. Publications abounded and after radio and television there were more attacks on American majority positions. The major change came with radio call in talk shows, similar TV shows and then the Internet provided a painless way to publicly go against majority opinion. By the first decade of the 21st century, movements of majority rejectionists such as the Tea Party and the Occupy Movement were thriving and “futile contests” received much public attention and showed that there were others with the non-majority views who made it socially acceptable to be outside the norms of the majority.
Originally it was published in Boston under the name “A Columbian Patriot.” She was right about the lifetime tenure of a senator, but it is the power of incumbency and not the senator getting forgotten that causes it. So she made an accurate prediction but gave the wrong reason.
Ingersoll was considered to be the greatest orator and political thinker of his day, but his overt atheistic views curtailed his elected political career.
1st Baron Lytton of Knebworth
He was concerned about the possible “tyranny of the majority.”
The Canadian government had put down a brief rebellion led by Louis Riel, 1844-1885, in Winnipeg. French Canadians in Quebec identified with the nationalist and many protested his death sentence. Riel was hanged shortly thereafter.
Political polls are very important tools in modern politics. However, they can be, and often are, inaccurate. More often they are misinterpreted, and results can vary extensively depending on how a question is worded. For example, in the 2012 Presidential election Republican Mitt Romney’s polls did not tell him that he would lose by a substantial margin. He, and some of this closest staff, thought they would actually win.
