Moving Leftward Is Dangerous

The New York Times runs a report of research which looks at the effect of more or less extreme political positions on voter turnout likelihood and voting propensity. Hat tip to Steven Hayward of Power Line for the link.

Survey research done for the Election Lab at M.I.T. found the following:

The embrace of progressivism solidifies support among Democratic survey respondents when thinking about the 2020 general election. But it repels independents, with a negative effect that is stronger and clearer than the signs of enthusiasm generated among Democrats.

After reading about the Democrats’ leftward shift, independents in a survey were six percentage points less likely to say they would vote for a Democrat for president in 2020, compared with a control group.

When Democrats who read about the leftward shift were asked how strongly they would consider voting for the eventual nominee, their support increased modestly, by three points on a “strength of consideration” scale.

Reading about the leftward shift did not seem to motivate the survey respondents to vote/campaign for (or against) the eventual Democratic nominee.

I can't imagine the editors at NYT were happy to read these findings, but the RNC sure is.