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: Teasing out actionable policy from election results is impossible. This is why candidates favor various and vague policy promises. Various positions grant broad support. Vague goals allow voters to graft on what they want the politician to mean. The result is a mess of meaningless priorities. 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.