5 Lessons About Politics for 2021 Hot takes aside, there were some genuine takeaways from the 2020 election. Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Getty/AFP via Getty Images
With a new year upon us, it seems prudent to boil down all the things we clearly learned about politics during the 2020 elections into a few bright-line lessons for the very near future. It’s very likely we will learn more once reliable post-election analysis based on Census data and voter files becomes available. (One of the problems analysts face right now is that 2020 exit polls are especially unreliable thanks to methodological issues raised by heavy voting by mail.) But searing some big-picture findings into our brains is useful since some of them contradict hot takes or override in significance other data points that have been exaggerated or misunderstood.