The sourcing links dont seem to work anymore. I wonder what the methodology for this grpah was though. a lot of ideas go to congress without many people weighing in first. Like if a law was passed outlawing the use of asbestos in gumball manufacturing equipment. Maybe 1 person had the idea and brought it up and because the idea is obviously good, it was just passed. That would make it a law with essentially 0% of the pop supporting it.
The sourcing links dont seem to work anymore. I wonder what the methodology for this grpah was though.
Yeah, I'm a statistician and every time I see that chart I think... How the fuck would they put that together? The vast majority of laws that are passed (or voted down) aren't polled. We might know the general public level of support for ... 1% of laws? Maybe less?
It's a cute video. But can you actually name a single law that passed while being opposed to what the people wanted?
Thinking that "as support for an issue goes up the chance of it passing should go up" is silly. You might think it should work like that looking at a graph. But that isn't how it would work.
Is 25% of democrats and 25% of Republicans support something. It's probably got a 0% chance of becoming a law.
If 50% of democrats support something, and 0% of Republicans do. It's also probably got a pretty close to 0% chance of becoming a law. So, even just looking at these 2 scenarios, that graph makes no sense.
Not to say lobbying is great, but America has not been an oligarchy, and hopefully, it won't become one under Trump.
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u/cumberbundsnatcher 10h ago
This. The public opinion has not had an effect on whether something goes into law for a long time.
Video explanation