The Conversation - Voters want Congress to make a deal

It’s not easy to write a fact-based story on what’s happening with the debt ceiling negotiations. As you’ve probably seen, read or heard, those negotiations are either failing or gelling, moving forward or stalling, dealing with the hard stuff or tackling only the easy things.

Covering secret negotiations is almost always like that. Reporters essentially let themselves be used by one side or the other as they rely on what they’re told – not what they’ve seen – by the different players at the table.

We wanted to advance readers’ understanding, though, of what’s happening, not parrot talking points. So I interviewed political scientist Laurel Harbridge-Yong, an expert on partisan conflict and the lack of bipartisan agreement in American politics. I asked her what she sees when she looks at the difficult negotiations.

Some lawmakers from safe districts believe their constituents want them to hang tough and not compromise, Harbridge-Yong said. But that’s not generally true, she said.

“The public does not like gridlock on issues in which people agree on the end goal,” she said. “The public, on average, even prefers a victory for the other side over policy gridlock.”

For most voters, while a win for their own side is the best outcome, Harbridge-Yong said, “a compromise is next best, a win for the other side is next best after that. Gridlock is the worst outcome.”

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