What do Americans Think of Pelosi’s Select Committee?

First the disclaimer.  Readers of my commentaries know that I am not a fan of polls – at least not taking them too literally.  They are too often mistaken – and even crafted to get specific results.  However, they are part of the stock and trade of political punditry – and so I report on them to get a general impression of the public mind.  Historically, some polls tend to be better than others.  Gallup and Rasmussen tend to be least influenced by politics, so I give them a higher credibility.

With that disclaimer being offered, I found a recent Rasmussen poll to be interesting — and even surprising, maybe shocking.  In a nutshell, the poll finds that more Americans believe that it would be more fruitful to investigate the rioting that rose out of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement than the January 6^th riot on Capitol Hill.  Perhaps that is because many more lives suffered from those riots than the mob action on Capitol Hill – although the victims in the cities were not “important people.”  The comparative carnage and suffering is not even close.  While January 6^th discomforted the political establishment, the urban riots caused far more devastation to far more people – including deaths, injuries, looting, arson and vandalism.  They struck hard against mostly poor black residents of our segregated communities.

Even though there have been all sorts of indicators that the American people were getting increasingly skeptical over the Democrats never-ending run of congressional investigations, the Pelosi shame may be a tipping point.  It may be that the Democrats constant claim that the sky is falling on democracy and the American Republic is lost is, itself, losing credibility with a public not as gullible as left seem to believe – or at least hope.

What is remarkable is the lopsided response.  More than two thirds of American voters believe that the BLM riots that swept across the nation after the murder of George Floyd should be seriously investigated.  Conversely, less than half of American voters (49%) support House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Select Committee investigating the events of January 6^th on Capitol Hill – and that despite the intense pumping up it has received from the elitist leftwing media.  That is not to say that the American people do not support the current law enforcement investigations of January 6^th – just not the Pelosi panel.

Now here is the mind boggler.  The two-thirds of the public calling for congressional investigations of the urban riots runs across all the significant demographic groups.  It was 67 percent among whites, 66 percent among Hispanics, 64 percent among blacks and 62 percent among other minorities.

This seems to explain the increased public concern over rising crime numbers – especially in the high-crime segregated communities — and the pushback against the defund the police movement.  The black police chief of Washington struck a chord with his angry attack on the local prosecutors, courts and politicians that keep hardened criminals on the streets instead of in jail – and he represents one of the most liberal Democrat cities in America.  He is speaking to the Democrat hypocrisy I have called out over the years.

That all has huge implications for Democrats running in 2022.  The Pelosi panel was launched mostly as a strategic maneuver to negatively impact on Republican House and Senate campaigns in the midterm elections.  Since there are not a law enforcement agency, they cannot press charges no matter what the find – and what they find will be no different than what the law enforcement agencies will find in their investigations.  And that could have real implications – not just the political fodder produced by Pelosi and her panel of political cronies.

Even if the polling numbers are off by that so-called “margin of error,” they are still huge.  They confirm the opinions of many pundits and commentators – including this one – that the Pelosi Select Committee could result in a HUGE political backfire.  Her highly partisan and heavy-handedness in forming the Committee may not be setting well with the American voters. Claims of bipartisanship with HER inclusion of two Republican apostates may be falling flat with the American public.

If you look only at these number, it can be fairly said that Pelosi may not be doing the work of the people in pursuing the January 6^th riot and NOT pursuing all those horrific riots that so marred our segregated urban communities.

Democrats are terrified at the possibility of losing the House – and maybe even the Senate – in 2022.  If this trend sustains, they may lose big time in a wave election.  It could be a defeat that is being architected by Pelosi, herself.

So, there ‘tis.