Will This Be a Culture War Election?
Bubba
03 Oct
Political analyst John Halpin says those polls about voters’ top issues don’t tell us what we think they do. (The Liberal Patriot)
The argument: Rather than focusing on policy debates, Americans are really concerned about divisive partisan personalities and media narratives, Halpin claims.
While issues like the economy, inflation, and immigration rank as top concerns in polls, voter priorities are largely shaped by partisanship.
Voters in one party often prioritize completely different issues than those in the other party.
For instance, 82% of Trump voters consider immigration a key issue, while only 39% of Harris voters feel the same.
On the flip side, 67% of Harris voters prioritize abortion, compared to about 33% of Trump voters.
More evidence: A recent New York Times/Siena College poll found swing voters’ biggest concerns about both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump were personality/temperament, not policy.
While the economy tops the list of voter concerns, there’s been a lot of overlap on Harris and Trump’s economic proposals.
Halpin:
The economy and other issues are sideshows in the bigger symbolic fight over who gets to define and represent the country’s values.
Elections don’t follow the old scripts anymore with the two parties waging a fierce but mostly confined ideological fight over the proper size and role of government, the focus and distribution of public resources, and relative attention allotted to certain groups and areas of the country—issues and priorities that can at least be handled through legislation.