Posted on 06/04/2015 9:13:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
It's not a major news story...yet. But trust me, the Democrats and the Federal Communications Commission that they control are ready to guarantee a defeat for Republicans in close U.S. Senate races in 2016 and in the battle for the White House. This is not columnist hype. It's the real thing, and it's moving like a freight train.
We all know that people hate getting those automated phone calls from politicians, creditors and vacation time-share hucksters. And rightly so. The FCC, headed by Tom Wheeler, has known that for years. But it seems they waited until now to act.
After rushing into law so-called "net neutrality" rules just recently, Wheeler and his gang are again in a hurry to regulate some more. But this time even the most politically adept Republicans may be failing to see the storm coming.
In less than a month, Wheeler's FCC will likely vote in favor of regulations that will appear to have rung a death knell to phone calls from debt collectors and pollsters. There are to be various ways for "consumers" to automatically block dialed phone calls -- including a call-blocking system that phone companies will be obliged to offer their customers.
As a man who used this technology for years as the head of a polling firm, I could easily get all worked up over the likely ruling's impact on my industry. I won't, though, because I don't head up the company anymore and because we had already moved to very accurate online surveys, anyway.
But for those supposedly superlative polls conducted by live call rooms -- so beloved by the establishment media -- they will be banned under the new rules, unless Wheeler and his Democrat-appointed majority on the FCC carve a special "niche" to keep them fat and happy.
Most opinion and news articles about this approaching decision have focused on either the end of the nuisance of automatically dialed calls, or the end of political and marketing research. But those stories miss the real and deadly aim of Wheeler and his gang.
Tom Wheeler is the FCC Commission Chair who had publicly stated his concerns about having government regulate the Internet. That is until he received not-so-vague marching orders from President Obama to reverse his direction and support the big Web-based companies who gave most of their money and manpower to Obama in 2016. (I'm not suggesting a quid pro quo; I'm just laying out the facts.)
Of course, the obvious victim is our nation's longstanding adherence to the First Amendment, which has always exempted political speech from restrictions and regulations. The pollsters will find a way to survive this overreach by the FCC. But the Republican Party, as it stands today, will not. And that is what the FCC's power grab is really about.
Democratic strategists have maintained that they own the world of social media, and they do. They beat Mitt Romney over the head with it in 2012. While this Democratic audience is less inclined to get involved in midterm elections, the impact social media has over the younger constituency who tend to vote Democratic is huge, particularly in presidential election years when these voters become more focused.
And every analysis we have read tells us that the largest GOP base is older Americans. Who still has landlines or will even talk on a phone? Older Americans. And who is least likely to have their faces shoved into a handheld device or to be surfing the net 24/7? You guessed it. Without those "pesky" automated phone calls to turn out their base, the GOP will be flattened come November '16.
The "experts" argue that the new rules will take years to have an effect and that autodialing systems will have plenty of ways of skirting the law. But they are missing the point. Automated phone calls will have become "illegal" in the minds of the public. GOP candidates and campaigns won't touch them with a 10-foot pole.
And what will appear to be a "pro-consumer" set of rules will instead make it virtually impossible for Republican candidates to turn out their base in the most important election of our lifetime.
Yes, the old are not on Twitter, Instagram and Vine and don’t watch You Tube videos much.
However, Foxnews is on in the background and foreground, most waking hours.
How does blocking “Polling” conflate with Get out the Vote efforts?
“I do not buy this at all.”
__________________________________________
Neither do I. I’ve never received a robocall from a politician, on either the land line or my cell phone.
Not once. Ever.
Also, this isn’t 2012, and Romney isn’t running. Ted Cruz and the other GOP candidates have been catching up to the dems in regards to social media.
The problem in this information age is that the increased use of cell phones has made any type of polling more difficult and using focus groups to try and gauge things isn't going to work either.
The days of polls being conducted by calling people on the old land line is slowly going the way of the Dodo bird, and it's skewed in that only a older segment of the population still relies on land line phones. My Father, for example, is 91 and went exclusively to a cell phone.
Does he think that the GOP has an advantage with Robo calling? Every anecdote I have ever heard is how Dems abuse it especially push polling.
Not sure what to think. But if the Dim controlled FCC is in favor of it then I will reflexively oppose it.
I want to know how the robo-calls manage to keep the phone connection even if I hang up on them. Hang up and then pick up the phone a few minutes later and the damn robo-call is still going strong and I can’t call out until they finish.
How ridiculous.
No one I know on either side of the political fence listens to Robo-Calls.
The GOP is stuck in the 80’s if they think this makes any difference in an election outcome.
Candidates who listen to voters and NOT big buck donors will make the difference in the future.
I don’t answer calls from numbers that I don’t recognize either
why not allow an automated means of doing the same.
I don’t want political calls from ANYBODY. In 2008 Obama’s Campain was relentless.
Not only do I disagree with his opinion, I will hazard my own that it hurts a candidate and people WON’T vote for them when they use it.
If I keep getting robocalls from any candidate I get mad, and I’m far less likely to vote for them, period. Obviously I won’t vote for a democrat because of it, but I will refuse to pull a lever if they’re obnoxious enough.
Same here, plus I have specific ringtones for my smartphone, so I know right away who is calling. I have a specific ringtone for numbers that I do not recognize and after I do an online search for the number I add it to my reject list
Hey thanks for that link, I just ordered one. I live and take care of my 88 year old Aunt and I have had a devil of time trying to keep these blood thirsty phone parasites away from her always trying to con money out of her.
This is just the thing i need. I have ATT Uverse but the phone menu doesn’t do what I want. They have a feature where you can forward up to 20 phone number to another number and I use it for the really bad repeat callers, it goes directly to the Republican National Committee.
The FCC can’t regulate calls that originate overseas from places like India.
Just run your call center operation out of India and tell the FCC to pound sand.
Good, let it make the GOP have a great field organization down to the very last precinct.
Make them knock on doors and drive their elderly neighbors to the polls.
Also, the Dems have long nudged their voters to get their children registered. Let’s have our voters make sure their parents get to the polls.
The do not call list is only good for so long. After that you have to renew it again. The best solution is to have audio caller ID. Certain phones like Panasonic come with it. Also specific ringtones for your cell or smart phone list do help. I do have a specific ringtone that I downloaded from ZEDGE for numbers that I do not recognize. When that comes on I do not answer the call and after I do an online search for the number I add it to my reject list
Really?
I don’t know if it’s right for the FCC, but pollsters and politicians should have never been exempted from the do not call list law in the first place. I doubt killing GOTV calls is really going to impact one party over the other.
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