Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

>If 2/3 of the public wanted abortion rights, Biden would have 2/3 of the popular vote, but he won't get anywhere near that. Hence, most people don't want Roe reinstated. QED.

That isn't the way people work. Or voting. Or polls.




It is the only practical measure of true public opinion. You can also, by extension, infer that roughly 47% of Americans think sexual assault is acceptable and that democracy is undesirable. It may not be what they say or even what they think but it is reflected in what they do.


It isn't practical by any means, it's unnecessarily reductionist, even when one doesn't consider the numerous innate biases involved in polling.

People are multidimensional but American Presidential politics forces them into a binary decision. Yet there are numerous reasons why people who support abortion might not vote for Biden. They may support abortion but not believe Biden is a credible choice to defend abortion rights. They may support abortion but vote against Biden to punish the Democratic Party for their response to Dobbs. They may support abortion but reject the Democratic Party altogether. They may support abortion but find activism at the state level more effective, and find other things like Biden's support for Israel more objectionable. They may support abortion but also support Trump, because pro-choice Republicans do exist, and their only options will be to vote Trump or not vote and all. And most people won't even vote at all.

>It may not be what they say or even what they think but it is reflected in what they do.

No. It may be comfortable to see people in such black and white terms, but the premise that unless one votes for Biden, one doesn't support abortion regardless of what else one says and does, is ... not even wrong levels of wrong.


Yes, this is exactly the problem with our "representative" democracy. For example, one polarizing issue this year may be whether a voter is willing to accept a candidate who acts like a mob boss or not, regardless of any other issue that the candidates are trying to stand on. Worse yet, elected candidates then have difficulty knowing which of the multidimensional issues mattered to their voters because all the information has been lost by the polarizing election system.


I understand that people are complex and can have subtlety and nuance to their personalities but I can only judge them on what they do. If someone kicks me in the shin, there could be 1000 reasons leading to them thinking it was a valid decision but ultimately they still just kicked me in the shin.

I'm sure 0% of Trump voters would tell a pollster they approve of sexual assault but their actions indicate they do.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: