A new study released this week by political scientists at Berkeley and the University of Michigan shows that state politicians look pretty out of touch with their constituents these days.
The survey asked 2,000 state legislators across the country how they thought their constituents felt about issues such as gay marriage and universal health care. What it revealed is that politicians on both sides of the aisle overestimate how conservative Americans are, and by quite a lot.
According to the study, “conservative politicians systematically believe their constituents are more conservative than they actually are by over 20 percentage points, while liberal politicians also typically overestimate their constituents’ conservatism by several percentage points.”
msnbc’s Chris Hayes joined the NOW with Alex Wagner panel on Friday to discuss what the study means. “It’s like a Rosetta Stone for American politics,” Hayes said.