Republican voters prioritize a smaller number of issues and care about them more than do Democratic voters.

From The New York Times, Many Americans Say the Democratic Party Does Not Share Their Priorities  The subheading is A poll from The New York Times and Ipsos found that Americans believe abortion, L.G.B.T.Q. issues and climate change concern Democrats more than the cost of living.

I have been saying this for the past three Democratic administrations.  You look at the chosen policy and legislative priorities and then you look at Gallup's Most Important Problems survey and there is almost always a gulf between what the public wants addressed (usually the economy and security) and what the Party priorities are, usually the normalization of some marginal group or social practice.  Venn diagrams with no intersection.

From the Times:

Many Americans say they do not believe the Democratic Party is focused on the economic issues that matter most to them and is instead placing too much emphasis on social issues that they consider less urgent.

Asked to identify the Democratic Party’s most important priorities, Americans most often listed abortion, L.G.B.T.Q. rights and climate change, according to a poll from The New York Times and Ipsos conducted from Jan. 2 to 10.

The issues that people cited as most important to them personally were the economy and inflation, health care and immigration, the poll found. The kinds of social causes that progressive activists have championed in recent years ranked much lower.

And given the results of the DNC election this weekend in Washington, D.C., it appears that the Party still has no interest in focusing on the priorities of the electorate.  

In a broad sense, the poll, which surveyed a representative sample of 2,128 adults nationwide, found that Americans think the Republican Party is more in sync with the mood of the country. The issues that people said mattered most to Republicans were also, for the most part, the issues that mattered to them: immigration, the economy, inflation and taxes.

The reporters mention another gap - that between Democratic voters and the Party.  Those surveyed said that the top five Democratic Party perceived priorities were:  Abortion, LGBT, Climate Change, the State of Democracy, and Health care.

There is this cryptic paragraph about those responding to the survey who identify as Democrats:

Even self-identified Democrats were only somewhat more likely than other Americans to mention abortion and L.G.B.T.Q. issues as important to them personally. Democrats did not rank either among their top five concerns.

So Democrats in the survey did not identify Abortion and LGBT as among their top five concerns.  If they don't share the top two priorities, it makes you wonder whether Democrat voters even identify Climate Change, Democracy, and Health Care as among their top five.  Seems a strange omission from the reporters.  

Fortunately there is a link to the survey.  Going to the source, we can answer the question raised but not explored by the reporters.  In contrast to what people see as the parties top priorities, what are the top priorities of Democratic voters?

They are:

The economy/inflation (36%)

Health care (36%)

Climate Change (25%)

State of Democracy (21%)

Housing (17%)

The Democratic party does address three of the top five Democratic voter priorities (Health care, Climate Change, and State of Democracy).  Interestingly, two of those three (Climate Change and State of Democracy) are abstract, conceptual and ideological in contrast to the three concrete issues (the Economy/inflation, Health care, and Housing).  

The Democratic Party prioritizes only one concrete Democratic voter goal, Health Care.  

Even within the Party the gap between Party policy and Democratic voter priorities seems large.

How well does the Republican Party perceived priorities (Immigration, Economy, Taxes, Guns, and Abortion), all very concrete, match against the priorities of Republican voters?  Republican voter priorities:

The economy/inflation (61%)

Immigration (43%)

Health Care (24%)

Taxes (24%)

Crime (23%)

All five voter objectives are concrete and the Republican Party priorities address three of them (Economic/inflation, Immigration, and Taxes.)  Only 11% of Republican voters mention Abortion as a top priority and only 10% prioritize Guns.  However, there is a bit of an issue given an overlap on Guns and Crime.  

It is worthwhile to contemplate the numbers on page 9 of the report.  A lot more nuance than the heavy handed reporting.  

One thing unremarked upon is that the Democratic voter priorities are much less focused than are Republican voter priorities and much more diffuse (conceptual/ideological goals as opposed to concrete issues).

Republicans have eight top (greater than 10%) priorities:

The economy/inflation (61%)

Immigration (43%)

Health Care (24%)

Taxes (24%)

Crime (23%)

Corruption (15%) 

 

Abortion (11%)

Guns (10%)

In contrast, Democrat voters have thirteen top (greater than 10%) priorities.  A consequence of that greater range is the intensity of prioritization is necessarily less.  Republican voters prioritize a smaller number of issues and care about them more than do Democratic voters.

The thirteen Democratic voter priorities:

The economy/inflation (36%)

Health care (36%)

Climate Change (25%)

State of Democracy (21%)

Housing (17%)

Taxes (16%)

Abortion (16%)

Guns (14%)

Immigration (13%)

Education (13%)

Polarization (13%)

Racism (12%)

Crime (12%)