DAVID HARSANYI: THE PREPOSTEROUS ARGUMENTS AGAINST VOTER ID

Gallup has been measuring the voters’ “most important problems” for decades. When you ask Americans to rank their most pressing political concerns, election integrity barely even shows up on the list. “Elections, Election reform, and Democracy” garners, in total, 2 percentage points on Gallup. Other polls typically reflect similar outcomes.  

Considering historical trends, it’s likely that the GOP was going to have a bad midterm election no matter what policy was passed. Treating the SAVE America Act as a make-or-break moment for the party and country, considering the hurdles it already faced in a closely divided Senate, was a big mistake. 

Due to these false expectations, MAGA is busy hammering GOP leadership, which is apparently supposed to create votes from the ether, rather than Democrats for their lockstep resistance to basic election security, fueling more discontentment and anger at their own party.

It’s not just election laws. Issues such as “foreign trade and the trade deficit” (the obsession of Trump and the anti-market types in his orbit) and “corporate corruption” (the obsession of Left progressives) barely even make a blip on any list.

“Foreign policy/Foreign aid/Focus overseas” comes in at 2% in the Gallup poll and is persistently on the lowest end of voter concerns. Yet, if you spent your day on social media reading Democrats and progressives or listening to the big podcasters, you might be under the impression that Israel was the most pressing issue for vast swaths of American people. 

The number of times you hear Democrats warning voters about “AIPAC” imbues that modest lobbying shop with thousands of times more power and influence than its actual reach. Social media nurtures the ugliest paranoias.

DAVID HARSANYI: EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT THE DEMOCRATS’ AIPAC OBSESSION IS REALLY ABOUT

Another issue that’s allegedly sinking the midterm elections for the GOP is the Iran war. There’s scant evidence anywhere that gettable voters are basing their decisions on what’s going on in Iran. Maybe they’re angered by oil prices, but Republicans are still supportive of dealing with the Islamic regime. Polls regularly show that only a sliver of Republicans are in the isolationist mold of a Vice President JD Vance. 

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Trump’s capricious handling of that conflict, or other issues, is helping his prospects, but the notion that a mass of voters are altering their party affiliation because the president is bombing an Islamist terrorist regime is far-fetched.

On the other hand, 36% of Americans place economic issues at the top of their minds. That’s up from 25% only a few months ago. The high cost of living, inflation, oil prices, unemployment, wage issues, taxes, etc, dominate virtually every poll. In a new Pew poll, economics is by far the top concern of voters, as well. 

In a July CNBC poll, only 3% of voters rated the economy “excellent,” while 41% rated it “poor.” The top issue for voters in that poll was food and grocery prices at 36%. (The second was “protecting democracy,” an utterly useless category that can mean anything to anyone.) Six of the nine top issues were related to the economy. 

So what did the president do this week? He slapped new tariffs on products from 60 trading partners, which will drive up prices for consumers. Tariffs, incredibly popular with Make America Great Again loyalists on X, consistently rank as one of the least popular of all the president’s policies. 

Protectionism has far more to do with the GOP’s problems than the SAVE America Act.

Obviously, just because an issue doesn’t rank as the voters’ greatest concern doesn’t mean it isn’t of any concern. It’s also fair to point out that simply because a majority of voters don’t care about an issue doesn’t mean it isn’t important. 

Polls, moreover, merely offer us trends. They aren’t scientific measurements of public sentiment. For Americans, voting is often an affirmation of an overarching cultural worldview that’s disconnected from any specific policy.

Among non-economic issues, for instance, the leading concern among voters is “government and poor leadership” at 26%. It’s not outlandish to theorize that independent voters who aren’t obsessed with politics might be looking for competence and stability. 

They won’t get that from politicians and their staff who spend all day scanning and reacting to social media feeds. In 2024, Democrats widely embraced extreme “woke” cultural quackery that happened to be popular on X at the time. Americans overall found that outlook unsettling enough to put President Donald Trump in the White House. “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,” was perhaps the most concisely powerful ad of the last presidential campaign. 

The same social media capture also affects mainstream media, where journalists and commentators frequently treat X outrages as a reflection of broad public consensus, distorting the expectations and perceptions of their readers. Media doesn’t temper social media panic — it exports it into the real world.

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Our social media-modulated politics, though, is so feeble and uninspiring that it’s a miracle any normal person even bothers to participate. Every political fight is transformed into a maximalist end-of-days event. Ultimately, politics fails us.

Social media takes that failure and plunges us into despair about our country. It’s completely unhealthy for individuals. But it’s also severely corrosive for political discourse.