Josh Steich on Voter Education

 Josh Steich on voters: 
Voters have always been "vibe based" rather than deeply engaged, policy literate rational actors. And the folks (older homeowners) who have traditionally been the most deeply engaged are the ones who tend to advocate for policies that end up benefiting them while screwing the rest of us.

There are two ways to fight this (and both are probably needed): First, the most popular liberal establishment answer, and the most popular among college-educated folks overrepresented in political discourse, is to do better civic education and work on getting normies more politically literate. It's the "the answer to bad speech is more speech" option, and counts on most people engaging with politics the way that educated liberals generally do: through a mix of research, debate and mainstream credible sources.

Second, to work on better vibes for liberals, progressives and Dems. The general complaint from the right that Obama voters just thought he was cool and didn't really think much about his policies? That's probably correct, at least to a significant extent. It's probably true about Biden too. And Trump voters are almost comically politically illiterate, and entirely voting based on negative partisanship vibes. This is something that Republicans excel at — partly because they have to, because when you describe their policies accurately, they're really unpopular! Only something like 15% of the public wants abortion laws like Texas, and even most Republican voters want to see higher taxes on the rich. So it's all based on provoking an emotional, fear based response, where scary Democrats are going to eat your babies.

It's really hard for mainstream liberals and progressives to answer that, because they try to get back by grounding the discussion in rational debate — basically like trying to reason with shitposters. It can be even worse on the left, because a lot of people with status on the left got that status by being able to argue more forcefully with people who generally agree with them — that's the wrong skill for convincing people who don't agree, and leads to what I think of as "Fugazi politics." Fugazi is a great punk band who intentionally staked out a career whose goal wasn't to be financially successful, but to be purists about their music. Which, again, is pretty great. But that can make their fans really snobbish about music like Taylor Swift, who is widely loved by all sorts of people. If you want to win elections, you want to win over the Taylor Swift fans, not the Fugazi fans, because there just aren't enough Fugazi fans and there never will be.

And maintaining political power — which is the goal, in order to get preferred policies passed — means winning over people who will never really want to be engaged, never be interested in wrestling with whether this abstruse zoning rule will have a downstream effect on housing, etc. It means getting them engaged because of vibes. Because it's cool, it's fun, whatever.

The good news is that the best way to do this is for you, reader, to talk to your friends and family NOW about how you're voting for Dems in the fall. Not as a fight, not as an argument, but just, like, a thing you're doing because you're a normal person, and it's a normal thing to do. Don't make people feel attacked, don't make them feel scared or angry, shrug off any bullshit and just be public about voting for Dems. You gotta start now, though, because this shit TAKES LOTS OF TIME AND REPETITION. Save the arguments for people who you already agree with, make them about the best way to get policies you both agree with, etc.