Surveys show Americans believe foreign aid is 25% of the federal budget. It’s less than 1%. The public is misinformed about what the US spends money on, which creates an abstract desire to “cut spending” that’s extremely difficult to translate into policy. https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/votervital/what-every-american-should-know-about-us-foreign-aid/
There was a study of sitting US Congressmembers and they were asked what their constituents believe ("What do you think is the approval rating of Medicare in your district" for example).
Basically, Democrats in solid blue districts believe that they represent a red district and Republicans believe that they represent the most far-right district in the country.
There were two big ones, I bookmarked only this one;
In 2013, researchers from Northwestern University and Stanford found that state legislators throughout the U.S. wildly overestimated the conservatism of their constituents. Republicans were more liable to have a deluded sense of how many of their voters’ wanted to abolish the welfare state, but even Democrats had a tendency to look at their blue districts and see purple or red: On average, legislators from both parties underestimated the level of support for universal health care in their districts by more than 15 percentage points.
There was a study of sitting US Congressmembers and they were asked what their constituents believe ("What do you think is the approval rating of Medicare in your district" for example).
Basically, Democrats in solid blue districts believe that they represent a red district and Republicans believe that they represent the most far-right district in the country.
Oh man that sounds great. You got a link by any chance?
There were two big ones, I bookmarked only this one;
https://scholars.org/contribution/politicians-think-american-voters-are-more-conservative-they-really-are