U.S. Voters Want Limited Government

The chattering classes for years have pushed a consensus about partisan voting. They claim Republicans have used culture-war “wedge” issues to win over the public even though Democrats are more popular on the core pocketbook issues Americans really care about. Many so-called national conservatives have embraced this consensus and argued that the Republican Party needs to adopt a more interventionist economic model to win mainstream and working-class voters.

Yet a look at polling and history shows that the conventional wisdom is backward. One of Republicans’ most consistent electoral advantages in recent years has been the economy, which voters have ranked as their most-important issue. This success owes to the widespread belief among Americans that government is too large and taxes too high. Contrary to the reigning arguments both for and about big-government populism, the actual populist position in America is for limited government.