These studies show the growing progressive movement is more popular than you might think
Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential run. The #RedforEd movement. The meteoric rise of AOC. Something new is in the air. A vibrant, potent progressive movement is emerging.
But the truth is, its roots go back at least a decade, and its values and messages are more popular than you‘d guess based on mainstream reactions.
In the wake of the Great Recession, Tea Party members weren’t the only ones who felt unseen and unheard by a rigged economy and political system. Occupy, the Wisconsin uprising of 2011, and #BlackLivesMatter were a glimpse that progressive — and even radical — demands were gaining popularity.
Now, recent research and polling is hinting that progressive solutions to rising inequality are resonating with large swaths of people.
These solutions are counter to what has become “common sense” after 40 years of corporate-funded conservative attacks on democracy and all things government besides police, prisons, and the military. They are:
We build unity by calling out how they divide us.
Following Trump’s surprise victory, the GOP is doubling down on anti-immigrant rhetoric, voter suppression, and stacking courts to tighten their grip on power.
A groundbreaking 2018 study revealed that a powerful way to fight back is to call for unity — by calling out racism overtly.
It found what you might expect: people across color and political lines are deeply worried about worsening racial divisions. But it also showed that this could be overcome — even with some conservatives — by talking about racial justice and economic justice together.
We should keep it real about racism: it’s a divide-and-conquer tactic meant to create distrust, undermine belief in government, and cause economic pain for working people of every color.
The explosive success of the first Women’s March hints that taking sexism head on is likely another winning tactic.
Corporations and the wealthy need to pay higher taxes.
When AOC suggested a higher marginal tax rate earlier this year, pundits everywhere from MSNBC to Fox News lost their minds. For years, they’ve been reflexively asking, “How we are going to pay for it?” but didn’t want to hear the answer.
Yet, polling is revealing a growing appetite for progressive taxation, even in red states.
A recent poll of registered voters found that a majority of respondents supported AOC’s idea — including 45 percent of Republicans.
In an even more revealing survey, people across the political spectrum were asked whether they agreed that “the economy works best when government cuts taxes and regulations,” or that “the government has the responsibility to make sure the economy works for everyone, not just the wealthiest people.” The vast majority — 72 percent — agreed more with the latter. Sixty-four percent agreed that taxes are a “contribution” rather than a “burden.”
Democracy not only needs to be saved but also expanded.
One key feature of the Trump era is a renewed public focus on the issue of democracy — and not just voting.
Yes, last year’s congressional elections had the highest midterm voter turnout since 1966. But Americans across the country have poured into the streets and packed the halls of Congress to protest Trump’s power grabs. New York City residents pushed their elected officials to all but force the world’s richest person, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, to walk away from $3 billion in tax breaks. Public school teachers from Los Angeles to West Virginia have walked off the job for higher pay and more resources for their students.
It’s ridiculous that this has to be said, but democratic control has widespread appeal.
Back in 2011, we learned that people of all political stripes don’t like the idea of privatization when it’s described as “handing over control” of public goods to corporations. Go figure: people want a say in the things that matter most in their lives, like schools, water, transportation, and other public goods.
Public support for unions of working people is at 62 percent, the highest since 2003.
There’s also been a noticeable shift in how people are talking about the recent teachers strikes. One reason is that teachers are winning broader support by “bargaining for the common good.” Los Angeles’s teachers not only won higher pay, but also smaller class sizes for their students, a nurse in every school, more counselors and librarians, more green space, support for immigrant families dealing with deportation, and more.
All of this points to growing support for public sector workers and a more democratic government, which is much-needed breath of fresh air. We’ve been swimming in anti-government rhetoric for so long that we forget about the things that public investment and democracy can do for all of us.
Like the fact that residents of Chattanooga, Tennessee, one of the 500 communities nationwide that have some form of public broadband, have the fastest internet in the nation.
Or community schools, public schools that provide students and families with social services, mental health care, and other support, becoming centers of the community open to everyone — all day, every day, evenings and weekends.
So, with the wind at our backs, it’s time to be bold and loud about how they divide us, why they need to pay higher taxes, and why we need more democracy, not less.
