The Atlantic: The Perception Gap That Explains American Politics (Gift link)

[Dennis Donovan]

The Atlantic - The Perception Gap That Explains American Politics

Americans overwhelmingly—but, it turns out, mistakenly—believe that Democrats care more about advancing progressive social issues than widely shared economic ones.

By Stephen Hawkins and Daniel Yudkin

November 28, 2024, 7 AM ET

In the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election, some commentators have argued that Americans don’t believe that the Democratic Party shares their political priorities. According to a large survey we conducted immediately after the election, these critics are onto something. Americans overwhelmingly—but, it turns out, mistakenly—believe that Democrats care more about advancing progressive social issues than widely shared economic ones.

More in Common, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization we work for, asked a representative sample of 5,005 Americans to select the three issues that were most important to them. We then asked them to identify “which issues you think are most important to Democrats,” and the same about Republicans. We used broad category labels rather than asking specifically about, say, “Democratic voters” or “Republican candidates,” to capture general perceptions of each side. Then we compared these perceptions with reality.

Let’s start with reality. We found that Americans have clearly shared a top concern in 2024: the “cost of living/ inflation.” This was the No. 1 most chosen priority within every major demographic group, including men and women; Black, white, Latino, and Asian Americans; Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X, Baby Boomer, and Silent Generation age groups; working-class, middle-class, and upper-class Americans; suburban, urban, and rural Americans; and Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Democratic respondents’ top priorities after inflation (40 percent) were health care and abortion (each at 29 percent), and the economy in general (24 percent). For Republicans, immigration came in second place (47 percent), followed by the economy in general (41 percent).

When it comes to how Republicans’ and Democrats’ priorities were perceived, however, we found a striking disparity: Americans across the political spectrum are much better at assessing what Republicans care about than what Democrats care about.

When asked about Republicans’ priorities, all major groups, including Democrats and independents, correctly identified that either inflation or the economy was among Republicans’ top three priorities.

By contrast, every single demographic group thought Democrats’ top priority was abortion, overestimating the importance of this issue by an average of 20 percentage points. (This included Democrats themselves, suggesting that they are somewhat out of touch even with what their fellow partisans care about.) Meanwhile, respondents underestimated the extent to which Democrats prioritize inflation and the economy, ranking those items fourth and ninth on their list of priorities, respectively.

/snip

[Elessar Zappa]

1. Democrats win by focusing on kitchen table issues.

If we had focused on ways to reduce inflation or improve healthcare we might have done better. I’m not saying Democrats didn’t talk about these issues, but it wasn’t front and center enough.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

7. They tried Build back better

had huge provisions in it, killed by Sinema and Manchin

Funny how huge progress can be stopped by such little opposition

[keep_left]

2. We let the Trump regime define us without nearly enough pushback.

I can't tell you how many of those moronic Trump "trans" ads I saw on TV--for months. And there was no pushback at all on those ads. I'm not saying Harris did a poor job overall, because she didn't. Hers was a very well-run campaign. But just leaving those outrageous and bigoted ads out there with no rejoinder--I don't know what to say, other than it made us look weak, and it also let us be defined as "degenerate", "deviant", and all the other alt-right "snarl words" they use. (See the "Newt Gingrich style manual" from the '90s, which had a long list of words with negative connotations to be used against Democrats).

[andym]

3. The perception gap is what enabled Trump to win

"It's the economy, stupid", as Bill Clinton said. He reminded himself to be laser focused on that idea in 1992 and beyond.

[JT45242]

4. Ignores rethuglican framing the conversation for literally 45 years

Fox news speed that Dems want to make everyone gay for 45 years.

Hate talk radio has called Dems feminazis and derided Dems for standing up for LGBTQ people. Because they need to punch down on oppressed groups and claim that straight white males are the real victims.

It's not how Dems frame themselves, it is how the media owned by billionaires has framed us on the 90 percent of all mefi that they own and control.

[dalton99a]

5. You can't eat democracy or pronouns

Stop focusing on abstract ideals when people are struggling to make rent

[Wiz Imp]

6. ...correctly identified that either inflation or the economy was among Republicans' top three priorities. Really?????

Since when do republicans care about inflation or the economy? Sure their voters care about them. But Republican politicians don't give a flying fuck about inflation or the economy. If they did, they wouldn't destroy the economy every time they are in power leaving the Democrats to clean up their mess. It's a provable fact that Republicans are terrible for the economy. All they care about is stealing more money from the poor and middle class and giving it to billionaires. Republican voters are just too ignorant stupid and brainwashed to figure that out. For these guys to claim that it is "correct" that inflation or the economy are a top priority for Republicans destroys their credibility.