Monday, September 29, 2008

An Open Letter to the New Hampshire Victory Fund

When I originally posted this, I erroneously believed that the New Hampshire Victory Fund was affiliated with the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. I have since been informed that the Gay & Lesbian Victory fund DOES NOT have any affiliation with the NH Victory Fund - in fact, they do not have state affiliates of any kind. Not only that, they do not conduct polling, and they are not involved in the Presidential election. Thanks to Denis Dison, from the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, for giving me the correct information, so I could address this more accurately.

I am writing because I received a phone call this evening from a poller who claimed to represent the New Hampshire Victory Fund. The phone call is one I found insulting.

The reason I found the phone call insulting is that your caller began by asking whether I intended to vote for Obama, McCain, or Undecided. The very content of the question is an insult to every single voter who has examined the candidates and determined that he is not willing to give his vote to either, but prefers, instead, to vote for someone else. Ralph Nader, for instance, or George Phillies, or any of the other candidates who DO NOT represent either the fascists from Denver or the socialists from St. Paul.

Not only was your caller's question on the Presidential race an insult to intelligent voters, he followed it up with identical questions on the race for Sununu's Senate seat and my district's House seat. In all three cases, his question identified ONLY the Republican and Democrat candidates, and offered "Undecided" as the ONLY alternative for voters who reject the Republican or Democrat alternatives.

Was it your intention to insult voters in this way, or did you simply not consider that intelligent voters might possibly choose to refuse to throw away their votes by voting for either of the two corporate candidates? You might want to consider that possibility when performing polls in the future, if you want to avoid insulting voters in the future.

2 comments:

Denis said...

Bill: The NH Victory Fund is in no way affiliated with the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. We do not have regional affiliates, and we have no connection to the phone poll you cite in your post.

Unknown said...

Denis - Thank you for your comment and clarification. As you can see, I've edited my original post to make it fit the information you provided, so that it no longer erroneously addresses the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund.