Poll Reveals People Care More About Policies Than Personal Character When Choosing Candidates
Michael Cantrell
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A new poll put out by The Washington Examiner/YouGov, has discovered than when it comes to voters choosing political candidates, personal character takes a backseat to their policy positions.
According to the survey, 46 percent of individuals who participated in the poll said that they would support a candidate with bad character if the policies the person espoused were ones they agreed with, compared to 33 percent of individuals who said that they would prefer to support a candidate with good moral character even if they disagreed with his or her policies.
This tendency is especially pronounced among Republicans. Seventy-three percent said they would pick the candidate whose policies they agreed with even if the candidate had bad character. Thirteen percent said the opposite. Another 14% said they didn’t know.
By contrast, 48% of Democrats said they would back a candidate they disagreed with on policy grounds if the candidate had good character. Only 26% said the opposite, and another 26% said they didn’t know.
Independents were split, with a 47% plurality choosing policies, while 34% said good character was more important. Nineteen percent responded that they did not know.
A lot of the responses on the Republican side probably stem from the fact that President Trump’s personality, which has been known to be a little contentious from time-to-time, is often a turn off for many voters, though he still remains popular due to the policies he’s put in place that back conservative principles.
Many individuals in the Democratic Party, like Sen. Bernie Sanders, have stated that they support Joe Biden, despite major differences with him on policies, because they believe him to be a man of superior character to Donald Trump. The whole notion of personal character was a major theme this year at the Democratic National Convention.
During the final presidential debate last week, Biden said, “Our character is on the ballot. What is on the ballot here is the character of this country. Decency. Honor. Respect. Treating people with dignity. Making sure that everyone has an even chance.”
Given the possible corruption and abuse of power Biden might have been involved with — something we now know because of the Hunter Biden messages — his character might not be so upright after all.
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