If conservatives want to win elections, they don’t need to rile up the base, they need to convince independents to say in public what they believe in private – that they agree with conservatives on most issues and that Democrats are the wildly out-of-touch extremists.

That, at least, is one way to read a fascinating new survey from Populace, a non-partisan think tank in Massachusetts, which figured out a way to discern what 20,000 Americans think privately and compare that to what they are willing to say publicly.

It turns out that there are often wide gaps between the two, which Populace calls the “Social Pressure Index.” People tend to avoid stating their views if they think they’re in the minority.

But here’s the really interesting finding: On a host of bellwether issues, independents are, in private, far more conservative than they will admit to pollsters.

The survey asked questions about democracy, individual rights, the economy, culture, racism, etc.

Take the question of whether the government has “too much control in America.” Fully 71% of independents believe this privately. That is almost identical to the 78% of Republicans who believe it.  In contrast, a mere 17% of Democrats think government has too much control.

When asked if “society is better off when individuals make decisions for themselves rather than having experts make decisions for everyone,” 86% of independents believe this privately, which is close to the 90% of Republicans. Among Democrats, just 63% believe it.

On the economy, independents are deeply depressed. Just 11% think it is doing well, and a mere 4% believe they are better off than they were five years ago. Those numbers are much closer to Republicans (5% and 2%, respectively). Democrats are the extreme outliers (64% think the economy is doing well and 47% think they’re better off).

Independents are also far less favorably inclined toward unions. Fewer than a third believe that “stronger labor unions are good for the economy.” That’s close to the 29% of Republicans. Again, Democrats – 70% said they believe this – are the extremists.

The chart above shows their hidden views on other issues and how they are actually much closer to conservative Republicans than leftist Democrats.

But this isn’t what independents tell pollsters. On almost all these issues, they publicly claim to be more liberal than they really are.

For example, while 86% of independents think privately that society is better off when individuals make decisions for themselves rather than experts doing it for everyone, only 69% are willing to admit that publicly.

While only 3% of independents privately believe that the government should censor offensive content, 20% say they do. Fifty-two percent think public schools focus too much on racism, but only 41% will admit to that view. Six in 10 think the U.S. is doing too much to help Ukraine, but only 44% will say that publicly.

Why do you suppose that is? The pollsters don’t speculate, but we can. We’d say it’s because the left has so thoroughly infiltrated the media, the entertainment business, education, and every other major institution that they’ve browbeaten independents into denying or hiding their actual views.

The result is that opinion polls skew left, which then only reinforces independents’ desire to stay silent. In reality, it’s leftist Democrats who should be running scared.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board