This is a fascinating ‘critic at large’ article in the New Yorker that discusses the way that the majority of American voters make their decisions. This article really blew my mind when I read it.
“Eighty-six per cent of likely voters in that election knew that the Bushes’ dog’s name was Millie; only fifteen per cent knew that Bush and Clinton both favored the death penalty. It’s not that people know nothing. It’s just that politics is not what they know.”
It references a book i’ll have to read, “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics”, written by Philip Converse, in 1964. For those of us who make an actual effort to understand, comprehend, and discuss the ‘issues at large’ within a campaign, it’s often mind boggling to understand why the nation is so polarized when our opinions are so clearly right. It might be the case that, despite our attachments to the ‘issue’ rhetoric, the voters who are most courted within a political campaign are those who have no such considerations.
“In other words, about twice as many people have no political views as have a coherent political belief system.”