[Ed. – Why would pollsters bother with this when they got the candidate they wanted?]
The worsening disjuncture between the public’s desires and the way our institutions translate them into control of American political institutions is an unsettling problem for our democracy and one that continues to exclusively benefit Republicans. But this year’s polling miss should also force Democrats to ask some difficult and uncomfortable questions about the last four years.
Chief among them is this: Was Trump more popular than public opinion polling suggested throughout his presidency? Is there in fact a reservoir of Americans that pollsters just can’t reach who supported Trump the whole time, mostly sat out the 2018 midterm elections (when polls were more accurate than in 2016 or 2020), and then turned out in droves for him in 2020? And if so, what does it mean?
