I can't say I predicted Trump's victory, but I was well aware of the principle listed above regarding polls, which means I had at least some genuine reason to be optimistic for it. This is the very reason the polls were so wrong, and the Left is scratching their heads like idiots trying to figure it out: The Left has spent so much time shouting/beating down and shaming any opinion that opposes theirs that conservatives have just decided, "Fine, I won't tell you what I think until I go into the booth." I know that I quit answering polls years ago for that very reason. I don't want them to know what I think - even if they "say" they are a "Republican" or "conservative" organization doing the poll, I don't trust them. There have been instances of liberal pollsters posing as conservative ones to try and deceive the people they're polling, so I just don't answer them, period. I don't want them to know what I think, and I don't want to telegraph to them what I'm going to do. And to be fully honest, in this day of NSA over-reach, I don't even trust that there's anonymity - they know what phone number they dialed and it's easy enough to find out who lives there or has that number. If you give answers they don't agree with, your name could conceivably end up on a" list" of some kind. I know that borders a bit on conspiracy-theory, but all the same I'll keep my thoughts to myself, thank you. I'm certain there are MANY conservatives out there who feel the same way. When the caller ID indicates it might be a pollster, they're not going to pick it up. It's kind of funny though, because the liberals have kind of painted themselves into a corner with the unintended results of their shaming. Now they can't get an accurate read on how they're doing. Then end result is that the conservative usually does better, and the liberal does worse than the polls predicted. We just quit paying attention to them.
