Title: There's No Such Thing as a Presidential Mandate - Foundation for Economic Education
Headings: There's No Such Thing as a Presidential Mandate
There's No Such Thing as a Presidential Mandate
What Is a Presidential Mandate?
Votes Are Not Policy
No Consensus among Trump Voters
The Myth of Democratic Socialism
Even Voting with Dollars Is Hard to Interpret

Content: It’s impossible to determine how much of someone’s support comes from one promise versus another promise. And even if one could determine how much voters favored a particular policy, they would disagree on execution. Support can easily disappear once details are added. If it were possible to translate votes into policy, it would still be foolish to try. Voters are ignorant and irrational about the circumstances and execution of policy. Election outcomes vary for a host of irrelevant reasons including the weather and local football games. Teasing out actionable policy from election results is not only impossible but irresponsible. No Consensus among Trump Voters
Surveys illustrate how dispersed voters’ priorities are. Emily Ekin’s exhaustive work on Trump voters at the Voter Study Group showed there’s no such thing as a “typical Trump supporter.” She identified not one but five types of Trump voters, each with a very different worldview.