As soon as a new product you bought from Amazon hits your doorstep, you can post a review. Before you’ve even paid your check, you can award a restaurant you’ve visited with stars on platforms such as Yelp. The moment a news story hits, you can broadcast your opinion to social media followers.
These days, we have countless ways to speak our minds. We can fire off a post when we’re upset about a customer service problem or a new policy proposal being considered by the government, and we can cut out the middleman and tag the company or leader directly with our complaint. And whether it is political leaders or big corporations, in a world where a voting rights bill in Georgia can cause controversy for a global airline, the scramble is on to find ways to be responsive.
But are the loudest voices truly representative of where the public stands? Moreover, is anyone out there actually feeling heard?
In recent years, Republicans have increasingly focused their message on the idea that they are a “silent majority.” And while President Joe Biden ultimately prevailed over Donald Trump by millions of votes nationwide, there is evidence that Republicans are much more reluctant to raise their voice publicly to state their views, even on nonpolitical issues.
According to my latest Echelon Insights polling, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say that they have spoken publicly, either through posts on social media, reviews, at meetings, or in some other way, about political figures and issues. In fact, nearly half of all Republicans (47%), particularly Republican women, say they never speak publicly about politics. But it isn’t just about politics; Republicans are also slightly less likely than Democrats to say they have publicly shared views on less politically charged topics such as brands, movies, and TV shows.
Some of this is about generational divides, with younger people both leaning to the left and being more comfortable using apps and platforms that facilitate speaking up about issues beyond politics. The political demographics of social media platforms such as Twitter bear this out in the real world, with 80% of all tweets coming from the most active 10% of users, users who are much more likely to be young and Democratic.
In my research, voters under age 40 are much more likely than their elders to say they’ve publicly voiced an opinion on a product or service compared to those over age 40.
But it isn’t just about who is talking. It is about who feels heard. My research finds the political Right is less likely to say they feel heard these days. When asked if they think “political leaders in Washington” are listening to the opinions of people like them, only 26% say they think leaders are often listening. And while most Democrats (57%) say those leaders are listening never or not often, that shoots up sharply to 75% for Republicans and all the way to 81% for those who are political independents.
The idea that “political leaders in Washington” listen more to Democrats isn’t just explainable by the fact that Democrats do control the levers of government in D.C. these days. When asked about “local elected officials,” there is still a partisan gap, with 49% of Democrats saying local leaders don’t really listen to people like them compared to 65% of Republicans.
Unsurprisingly, the partisan divide remains wide when people are asked if they think “national news media organizations” listen to the opinions of people like them. While Democrats are split on the matter, 76% of Republicans and 73% of political independents say they do not feel heard by the national news media.
Even “large corporations and brands” are not viewed as being very good listeners, and this cuts across the partisan divide more evenly. Only 21% of Republicans and 31% of Democrats think that big business is listening to people like them. When the question is further personalized, asking people whether they feel the companies they buy things from are listening to them, only a quarter say they think this is the case, with 6 in 10 of both parties saying these companies listen to them “not that often” or “never.”
We may have a variety of ways to speak out about our views in a manner that would have been unimaginable to past generations. But that doesn’t necessarily mean people are feeling heard. And in particular, it is Republicans who say they feel no one is listening.
