Know Where You Stand: How Informing the Voters Helps the Democrats
Another presidential election is approaching, and the outcome will have real policy consequences. A Romney victory in November, for example, could be worth more than $200,000 per year in tax savings for the wealthiest 1 percent. Yet Americans tend to be woefully uninformed of the policy positions of candidates and their parties.
For example, more than 45 percent of Americans do not know which major party is more supportive of raising the minimum wage or capital gains tax rates. But even if they cannot map their opinions onto party platforms, many of these potential voters do have opinions on the issues. Moreover, those with less knowledge of the parties hold more liberal views on economic issues than those who are better informed. Of those citizens who do not know the parties’ positions on capital gains tax, 77 percent believe that capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as regular income—or higher. Only 58 percent of more informed citizens share this view. Conversely, these less informed citizens hold more conservative views on moral issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage than do better informed counterparts