Making More Information Voters

Over at Legal Insurrection, William A Jacobson writes about the costs of low information voters who get their information primarily through liberal-leaning (or sometimes straight partisan liberal) news outlets. I think the problem is less that they are low information than that many voters are no information when it comes to a sympathetic presentation of conservative ideas. The media (often of the entertainment or infotainment variety) that many people consume will just never run these kinds of stories or have those kinds of conversations. That might be the single biggest structural weakness in how political conservatism gets out to the public.

Yesterday, in the course of an unpleasant day, I involuntarily watched some of an afternoon talk program. It is the kind that comes on after the noon local news and seems to be displacing soap operas. The theme of the show seemed to involve banter among a team of hosts who would then teach the viewer how to cook various dishes. The hosts opened the show talking about the NBA player who had declared that he was gay.

I don’t imagine that the audience for these types of programs tune in for any political content, but people are shaped by what they watch. I was watching the program and it struck me that this was exactly the time, both of the day and of the election cycle, to run a one minute or ninety second ad about late-term abortion or family-friendly tax reform. My sense is that when it comes to changing people’s minds, such ads now would be worth dozens of generic “vote for the Republican” thirty second ads the week before the election when viewers are beaten numb from back-to-back-to-back political commercials.