I have long remembered what a friend said to me in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was running for president. Confused, she said that she didn\u2019t understand his popularity, all her friends were voting for Democrats. At that time, I still had strong ties to Iowa and told her that all the farmers out there were supporting Reagan. You might recall that many Democrats went over to vote for Reagan and continued to vote Republican for several years. These voters were Democrats, but not always, especially when bread and butter issues were at stake.<\/p>\n
My takeaway then and ever since has been that we must not let our friends’ opinions nor anecdotal evidence influence us about political trends. And we must not believe our own \u201cpress releases\u201d declaring that most of the people really agree with our politics and support our policies.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m always amused and a bit skeptical when I hear politicians of all stripes suggest that the \u201cpeople\u201d agree with them and want what they are selling. They imply they are only proposing what the citizenry has always wanted. Bravo!<\/p>\n
Currently, Democrats tell us that the majority of Americans agree with their ideas for climate change, green energy, gun control, public health care, childcare, and humane immigration policies. Republicans like to boast that Americans really support their positions on stricter immigration, smaller government, taxes, healthcare, and foreign policy. Libertarians like to say that most Americans are libertarians, but just don\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n
The truth is that no matter what political partisans and ideologues think, voters do not always agree with them and favor their view of things. Americans can be fickle, they vote their self-interest, and change their minds when it is convenient regardless of party affiliation. Most Americans are not ideologues. They are moderates whether it be to the left or right and they change positions frequently. Over the last thirteen years, we have elected Barack Obama twice, Donald Trump once and now Joe Biden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have long remembered what a friend said to me in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was running for president. Confused, she said that she didn\u2019t understand his popularity, all her friends were voting for Democrats. At that time, I still had strong ties to Iowa and told her that all the farmers out there were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n