New polling numbers from the Pew Research Center shows that nearly half (45%) of all Americans have no idea what the Supreme Court did in regards to the law (emphasis mine). That includes 30% who don't know what the court did, and another 15% who thought the court had overturned most of the law.
The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza is still shaking his head:
Inside the numbers was — not surprisingly — even more eye-opening. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, one of the electoral pillars on which Obama’s 2008 victory was built, 43 percent didn’t know anything about the court ruling, and other 20 percent thought the court had rejected most of the tenets of the law. That means that roughly two in every three young people didn’t know or were mistaken about what happened Thursday at the court.
What should you take from the Pew poll? That assuming that the electorate is paying close attention to the political goings-on — even when they are so seemingly high profile as the court ruling on health care — is a mistake.
Most people — especially those who are unaffiliated or independent voters — tend to be relatively low information voters. That is, they don’t have all the facts on an issue — and they don’t really care to find them out.
Post a Comment