Sampling, shmampling. Science, shmience

Here, via God Plays Dice, is a link to an article about the census and statistical sampling. The article talks about random sampling done after census data is collected in order to estimate the direction and magnitude of measurement error involved in census data collection. The broad issue is that it's possible, through sampling, to discover said measurement errors, but it's not possible to correct them, because the law forbids to use statistical sampling in the data collection process. Scientists have for a long time been lobbying to change the law in that respect, but their arguments have invariably been met with the same response. Here, an example of this response is provided by Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH):

You take guesses based on what you think is the best political outcomes that you want, rather than counting people who actually exist.

One sentence, two very ignorant misconceptions. Misconception one: statistical sampling is "just a guess." Misconception two: it's physically possible to "count people who actually exist." Infinite accuracy in observation is a very naive illusion; "counting people who actually exist" is riddled with measurement error, which is actually worse than sampling error. Why? Because, if sampling is done correctly, sampling error is easily quantifiable, which means that estimates come with known margins of error. (Here is a truly excellent blog post explaining why sampling works, i.e. why, as random sample gets "large enough," sampling estimates approach true population values.)

I may be wrong in my observation, but it seems to me that this particular objection to statistical sampling is more likely to be heard from Republicans rather than Democrats. It seems to stem from the Republicans' general distrust of the scientific method: sampling is "just guessing," evolution is "just a theory;" basically anything that isn't the result of direct observation but involves inference of any kind is somehow suspect. Exactly why this sort of distrust is more of a Republican phenomenon I do not know.

To wrap things up, a truly hilarious line from the post at God Plays Dice:

As a combinatorialist I admire the theoretical elegance of our country's once-a-decade exercise in large-scale, brute-force combinatorics.