The US is ranked as a 'Flawed Democracy', what needs to change?

[Eagle367]

Chrkeller said:

the-pi-guy said:

Most people do want these things depending on how they're asked. 

What the exact question that gets asked is important. If you ask if Americans want more gun restrictions for mentally ill people, the vast majority of Americans support that restriction. If you ask for universal background checks, the vast majority of Americans (Republicans and Democrats, both above 70%) support that.

If you start asking about blanket gun bans, then you start getting a lot more pushback against that, especially amongst Republicans.

Gallup polling

Vox polling on Republicans and Democrats

It's a similar trend with healthcare. It depends on what question you actually ask. If you ask about a single payer system, there's a lot more pushback for that. If you ask if there should be a medicare/medicaid option available for everyone, there's substantially more support for that.

A bigger issue at hand is that when you bring up something like "gun restrictions", people tend to assume that means the absolute most disagreeable thing it could possibly mean.   

Chrkeller said:

Being born and raised here.  Knowing how my friends and family vote.  Oh and I am a registered democrat and vote as such.  I'm just telling the truth, which upsets people.  The core beliefs of the average american isn't what people think it is.  This is especially true in the mid-west and south.  

Personally I think Republicans pick up sets this November...  if the average american believed what people think they do....  republicans would get decimated at the polls...  fact is, Republicans are not and are doing quite well over the last decade.  

No one here is upset by the truth. But these things are more complicated than you're talking about. 

A major issue at hand here is that there is a big difference between what most Americans think Republicans and Democrats are, and what the reality actually is. 

Republican voters tend to be more moderate than Republican politicians.

Now, a new study finds that members of Congress also believe that they represent staunchly conservative electorates that do not actually exist.

If you actually ask people about their positions, a lot of times they have positions that are very in line with a typical Democratic politician, and yet they vote Republican. And then they start talking about Democrats, and they have very extreme views on where they think Democrats are.

There is a big perception difference between where the typical Democratic and Republican politician is, and where their voters think they are. Republicans think Republican politicians are less extreme than they really are, and they think Democrats are much more extreme than they really are. 

As somebody who does statistics for a living, polls are questionable.  Ask 11,000 people..  which people are being asked?  People in New York will have much different views than somebody in Alabama.  There are two ways of looking at it.  People don't know what they are voting for or people do know what they are voting for and the average person doesn't believe what we think they do.  I believe in the latter absolutely 100%.  But too each their own.  

Again, Hillary was suppose to decimate Trump...  how did that work out?  And I say this as somebody who never has nor never will vote Trump.  There is a massive disconnect between election results and what we think people want....  I'm not going to brush it off as "people are stupid and don't know what they are voting for."  I don't believe that is the case at all.  But again to each their own.

You are being a little disingenuous. And you should know better as a statistician. You can look at methodologies and what separates a bad poll from a good poll. You can critique individual polls too. The way and framing of questions is part of that. Just dismissing them outright though is weird.

And wait who said Hillary was supposed to decimate Trump? Everyone who looked closely at the elections was saying she's a bad candidate and it shouldn't have been her. Hell there was an entire scandal about the Clinton foundation using funding they gave to the DNC to make sure she won over Bernie. What people were saying was she would get more votes and she did. 

As for the question of people knowing or not knowing what they vote for, read manufactured consent. Also maybe look into the history of brainwashing and political maneuvering.  Messaging and perception have shown to be more effective than actual good policies people themselves want in countries where media literacy training is not taught. That's why teaching children how to get knowledge is way more important than maths, science, and all the things people thinks schools should be for. It's not that people are dumb, it's that we are people and people fall for things. Even the most intelligent of us, unless we are taught about and know how to avoid these tactics. Even then we fall for some of it. You and me and everyone here and everyone in the world.

Those with media literacy and taught critical thinking skills just fare better. Unfortunately those people are not the majority in the world because a properly educated population is a threat to the political careers of I would say most of the world politicians.