What Voters Want

Molly Ball wrote an article forThe Atlantic website that shows the latest polling numbers explaining what voters want from a "fiscal cliff" deal:
Americans want a deal that reduces the deficit, raises taxes on the wealthy, and doesn't cut entitlement benefits. But most of all, they want compromise
That is to say, Americans want the problem solved but they want someone else to pay for it.  This does not surprise me.  It does not trouble me much either.  In a culture driven by consumerism, people desire bargains including policy.  I would prefer they wanted a prudent solution (whatever that is) rather than a simulacrum of "bipartisanship."  History, however, holds too many examples of popularly supported offal to hold much hope in that regard.  

Something does trouble me though.  Perhaps availability bias is at play here but I feel a creeping reliance on poll numbers in analyzing the prudence of policy.  As though popular support equates to wisdom.  It is important that a policy be good.  It is not important that a policy be popular.




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