The author, Arthur Brooks, is the past president of a Republican thinktank, AEI.
Republicans have a strong incentive to encourage citizens to ignore the political news, because their policies are deeply unpopular. Republicans rely on a non-engaged citizenry for votes.
Brooks is one of the Republican elites who shapes Republican political strategy. He has a deep conflict of interest when he tells you to stop reading about politics.
> Republicans have a strong incentive to encourage citizens to ignore the political news, because their policies are deeply unpopular. Republicans rely on a non-engaged citizenry for votes.
Conservatives outnumber liberals in every age bracket above 30, among both men and women, in every income bracket, among every education class except folks with post-graduate degrees, in every region, and among both non-Hispanic white and Hispanic people: https://news.gallup.com/poll/275792/remained-center-right-id....
OP said Republican policies, which you reframed as conservative vs liberal, while ignoring the middle moderate column.
Many conservative and even some moderate voters might prefer to vote Republican but are uncomfortable doing so due to the current Republican platform which is not only not conservative, but also unwelcoming to anyone but straight white men and their allies.
On GOP policies:
> GOP leads on the economy but trails on other issues, including the coronavirus. By 49% to 40%, registered voters are more likely to say the Republican Party, rather than the Democratic Party, can do a better job on the economy. The Democratic Party holds wide leads on several issues, including climate change, abortion and contraception, health care, issues involving race and ethnicity, and handling the public health impacts of the coronavirus outbreak. Nearly half of voters (47%) say the Democratic Party could do a better job in handling the public health impact of the coronavirus outbreak, compared with 35% who say the GOP could do better.
I don’t classify myself as liberal, although I voted for Democrats in the ballot I dropped off today — for everything except for my state’s treasurer and secretary.
My point is that conservatives or liberals don’t necessarily outnumber one or the other in the way you’ve generalized across all these dimensions. If that were the case, conservatives wouldn’t need to rely on the electoral college to win Presidential elections.
Republicans have a strong incentive to encourage citizens to ignore the political news, because their policies are deeply unpopular. Republicans rely on a non-engaged citizenry for votes.
Brooks is one of the Republican elites who shapes Republican political strategy. He has a deep conflict of interest when he tells you to stop reading about politics.