Glenn Beck: I don't trust the polls because of the Bradley Effect

Conservative radio personality Glenn Beck said on his radio program that he doesn't trust the polls showing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is ahead of Republican nominee Donald Trump because of a modified version of the so-called "Bradley Effect." Beck noted that the term was coined after Tom Bradley, the black mayor of Los Angeles who ran for governor of California in 1982. Polls consistently showed Bradley leading his race, but he ultimately lost.

Political scientists theorized that one of the reasons the polls were erroneous was that respondents told pollsters they intended to vote for Bradley because they did not want to be perceived as racist for voting against the black candidate — thus the "Bradley Effect" term was coined.

Beck noted that, while the original Bradley Effect was chalked up to racism, there still might be reasons that poll respondents are lying to pollsters in the 2016 election. According to Beck:

It is a natural avoidance of conflict in your personal life, until you close the curtain.  So the country is so divided that you're a racist if you don't vote for Bradley.  OK?  And so if you — if you just don't agree with him, but you're not a racist, you just don't agree with him, just go along and say, "Yeah, I'm with you."  And then when the curtain closes, you're like, "I don't agree with him."  It's not racism.

So if it's racism, then it doesn't apply.  But fits actually political correctness, that you're tired of political correctness, but you're so tired you've just given up — and you're just saying, for instance, "Yes, I'm for Trump."  Because you don't want to get beat up by the pro-Trump people.

Beck also noted that both candidates likely benefitted from some sort of "Bradley Effect":

Or you are actually pro-Trump, but you're saying to your friends that you're Hillary.  You just hate Hillary so much, you're just like, "I'm going to go for Trump."  But your friends will kill you if you say you're for Hillary. ...

And I think both of them have this.  I think Hillary has the possibility that there are so many people — we've talked to them. So many die-hard Democrats that despise her.  Despise her.  But they are so afraid of Donald Trump.  The same thing with the Republicans. They despise Donald Trump. But they're so afraid of Hillary Clinton.  That could shake apart once the curtain is closed.

However, Beck concluded, Trump's support seems much less likely to be based on the "Bradley Effect" than Clinton's, and that Clinton should be concerned that the polls might be wrong in her favor:

The people who say they want to burn things down or they want him to burn things down, they will be there.  Nothing will stop them.  And if Hillary Clinton thinks that she's going to just — just take it.  You know, we're ahead.  You know, they're now talking about expanding their lead.  That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.  Make sure you have the win because you look just at fervor.  The Trump people — the people who are die-hard Trump, there is nothing that will stop — you could have — you could have nothing but airplane propellors surrounding the voting booth, and the Trump will be like, "I'm walking through those blades."  Yeah, but everybody is made into salami.  Have you seen all the dead bodies that have been sliced up?  "I'm trying."  I mean, they're not going to stop.  They will go vote.  I'm not sure Hillary's people will.

Beck has stated that he does not intend to vote for either Clinton or Trump in the general election.