Coronavirus Information...who do you trust?

[BmorePat87]

(07-16-2020, 02:08 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Looking at those comparisons could be relevant and could provide a more comprehensive picture. However, the most useful category is still the 2016 election results. Even if you looked at the legislature and governor makeups, you have too much of a spectrum on ideology. When you compare election results of those two people, it isn't just a party breakdown, it is two individuals. When you break it up by party but multiple people, the categories really become useless for any sort of comparative statistics.

The idea behind providing comparative statistics like this is to provide the information in an easily digestible format that still provides the correct information. Looking at governors or legislatures alone wouldn't work because, as you point out, often the governor is playing to the tune of the legislature. Well,t he legislature is bicameral in all but one state, so what if that is split? If unified, for or against? And how far to the left or right is each chamber and the executive? There is no way to do that comparison without at least eight categories on party alone, not getting into ideological spectrum. That is a much more complex analysis that would not be as helpful to the reader. Would it be interesting data to get into? Sure. But it defeats the purpose of providing a graph like that when it gets that complex.

Like I said, I get why it was made, the legitimacy of comparing those two stats, and it's a fair argument to make to look at voter preference Trump given the role Trump has taken in supporting or opposing covid measures. This is more easily digestible. 

But, as someone who works in a related field and wants to see more, I also want to get into the nuances beyond that. That part is a personal preference and not an indictment of the graphic itself.