Inflation was a key issue for Americans in this election. The national exit poll found that 31 percent of voters named it as their top issue of concern, out of five possible options. But I want to dig into some of the exit-poll numbers on this because one truly wild thing that stands out to me here is the partisan balkanization of what should — you would think, anyway — be objective facts that affect everyone the same way. Take gas prices. An increase in what you have to pay at the pump should, hypothetically, hit everyone’s pocketbooks in a nonpartisan way. If anything, given the self-reported income breakdowns of the people answering this poll, you’d think Republicans (who held higher shares of the three wealthiest income brackets) would be less stressed out than Democrats by the added expense.
But reality is an illusion — and how Americans feel about it, doubly so. When asked whether gas prices have created a financial hardship for themselves and their families, voters in these exit polls responded along hard partisan lines, with 64 percent of Republicans saying “yes” and 73 percent of Democrats saying “no.”