...who don't understand cause and effect, and don't understand the candidates or their policies--like the people regularly interviewed by the NYT in their "American in Focus" series (read a few of those, and weep). Recall the revealing anecdote from longtime reader S. Wallerstein:
Shopping in an open air market, Mr. Wallerstein was chatting with a Chilean woman about the U.S. election: he expressed his preference for Biden, she expressed that she liked Trump. As the conversation went on, she also revealed that her truly favorite American political figure was Michelle Obama. As Mr. Wallerstein observed: "I realized that for her and for many others, Trump, Biden and Michelle Obama do not represent political positions on the left and right spectrum, but are simply celebrities who appear on TV: some appeal to her and some don't for completely non-political reasons."
Achen & Bartels provide the evidence for the anecdote. It's all pretty horrifying, of course, but that's the reality: our fate will be decided by some of the most uninformed and witless people in the electorate.
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