Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (Princeton Studies in Political Behavior)
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Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government
https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Realists-Elections-Responsi...
"...show that the familiar ideal of thoughtful citizens steering the ship of state from the voting booth is fundamentally misguided. They demonstrate that voters--even those who are well informed and politically engaged--mostly choose parties and candidates on the basis of social identities and partisan loyalties, not political issues. They also show that voters adjust their policy views and even their perceptions of basic matters of fact to match those loyalties. When parties are roughly evenly matched, elections often turn on irrelevant or misleading considerations such as economic spurts or downturns beyond the incumbents' control; the outcomes are essentially random. Thus, voters do not control the course of public policy, even indirectly."
Those of us doing policy work using educate and persuade strategies need to adapt, up our game.
https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Realists-Elections-Responsi...
TLDR: People vote based on identity (self image), then adjust their beliefs (positions) as needed.