Newest Pew Research Results (4-26-2018)

Great Debates
1

I’m going over the latest polling from Pew (The Public, the Political System and American Democracy), and it’s interesting enough that we could have a whole thread about it.

Results here (PDF warning… and it’s long!) The survey was conducted from January 29 through February 13, 2018.
I’m only about halfway through, so I’m sure I’ll comment more later, but one thing that caught my eye is on page 91:
Long-standing partisan gap over views of compromise disappears
% who say they like elected officials who make compromises with people they disagree with

Dem and GOP respondents answer the same at about 45%. That number hasn’t really changed for the GOP since last year, but for Dems, it’s plunged from almost 70%, a 23% drop in one year.

I can’t analyze that one. Could be one of the Trump Effects. Could be because this is a midterm year. Could be because this is a midterm year and a blue wave is expected. Could be due to the tax cut or the health care votes. Could be due to the #metoo movement, but it’s not due to the most recent battle over gun restrictions, since the Parkland shooting didn’t happen until the day after the poll closed. Whatever caused it, it’s a massive shift.

2

Also of interest, from page 98:
Older adults emphasize importance of voting, jury duty for good citizenship
% who say it is ___ important to what it means to be a good citizen to …

Just more than half (56%) of those 18-29 feel that voting is very important for good citizenship (opposed to 92% of those over 65). Another 27% of younger respondents feel that voting is somewhat important.

But on whether good citizens should protest if government actions are wrong, the 18-29 group is almost exactly in lock-step with the 65+ group (both of which are significantly higher than the 30-49 group and somewhat higher than the 50-65 group).

3

The Tea Party Effect isn’t limited to just one side.