Well, you are definitely right about one thing: policy analysis is, unfortunately, a task too exhaustive for the average American. Therefore, I can definitely

Well, you are definitely right about one thing: policy analysis is, unfortunately, a task too exhaustive for the average American. Therefore, I can definitely imagine a counterintuitive (but right) stance turning off voters. However, one thing that I have learned throughout this whole financial crisis is that people do care. And regardless of whether or not the underlying problem(s) are generally understood, the public wants solutions...and good ones. Political stances are always under a lot of scrutiny from the university professors and media networks. So if the general public cannot analyze and understand the full situation they will instead rely on and digest the consensus of the intellectual community. I cannot see politicians (at least smart ones) worrying about having their their voters understanding their policies. They have bigger fish to fry. They have to be right, they have a record to defend, and they want to carry on a political career that can only advance with a record of retrospectively, good judgment. Matthew Arnold put it best with, "The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next."