Overview
Citizens are routinely asked to pronounce on complicated public questions within seconds, often without context, explanation, or even basic orientation. In that moment the respondent is not deliberating; he is reacting, drawing on fragments of media narratives, partisan identity, and instinctive cues. Those reactions are then aggregated, weighted, and presented as measured public judgment. The real question is what sort of public voice we wish to hear: the first reflex, or the first thought. Public opinion should not be counted before it has had at least a brief chance to become opinion.