Voters Think Democrats Are Racist
Are Democrats going to do anything about that?
A recent finding by political scientists at UC Berkeley has been getting a lot of attention. The researchers studied which opinions by hypothetical political candidates changed voters’ opinions the most, and the part that I highlighted below — the bit that academics are too prudish to call “the money shot” — is what I want to talk about.
The study finds that the policy change Democrats could make that would improve their standing with voters the most is to move to the center on affirmative action (i.e. ditch affirmative action or substantially changing it). And a surprising second place is ending racial preferences for small business loans, which is odd in light of the fact that presumably few Americans are appealing to the Department of Agriculture for help with their corn-based startup. The paper found that moderating on affirmative action would gain Democrats an incredible 4.5 points of vote share, and for context: The last Democratic presidential candidate to lose the popular vote by even half that margin was Michael Dukakis.
So, two questions spring to mind:
What’s causing this?
Why don’t Democrats do something about it?
