Ah, election season. That festive time when politicians suddenly have new ideas about how to make our lives better. This year the limelight shines brightly on our revered American economy, which is presently either good or bad, depending on whom you ask. But it’s election season, so voters rule and the experts can take a powder. And that’s why today we have both presidential candidates proposing economic policies that make economists wince and voters cheer.

The remarkable gap between experts and ordinary people is nicely illustrated in a recent Wall Street Journal poll targeting economic policy ideas from both campaigns. The Journal asked 750 registered voters what they think. Then they commissioned the University of Chicago’s Clark Center to get a reading from 39 “top academic experts.” The policies in question include things like tax-free tips and Social Security income, tariffs on imported goods, penalties for price gouging, free money for first-time homebuyers or parents of newborns, and caps on various drug prices.

The experts hate much of this because it runs counter to their preferred economic theories. But regular folks, whose frame of reference comes mainly from the realities of daily living, gave an average 63% thumbs-up. The starkest contrast comes with tax elimination, where voters are nearly 80% for and economists are about 90% against. Makes you wonder if we’re not living in parallel universes.

At this point much could be said about economic philosophy and lessons from history. But instead let’s think about this: roughly half of this country votes conservative, which means they typically don’t like big government. But according to this survey, around three quarters of all voters favor economic policies that involve more government spending. That means something like one half of conservative voters are willing to suspend their principles in the interest of helping people get through tough times.