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Saturday, November 09, 2024

Michael Tomasky: It wasn't the economy. It wasn't inflation, or anything else. It was how people perceive those things, which points to one overpowering answer. The answer is the right-wing media.


Tom Nichols: Those who expect that Donald Trump will hurt others, and not them, are likely to be unpleasantly surprised. read more


Friday, November 08, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson: Trump won the election in part by promising everything to everyone, but the actual policies of the MAGA party are unpopular, even with many Republican voters. read more


We'll be devoting a significant part of our staff to detailing what are expected to be dramatic changes in the role of the federal government in the lives of Americans.


Will Bunch: With billionaires on bended knee and criminal charges vanishing, America's strongman era begins. How can you react?


Comments

Oh the irony and the schadenfreude that is about to follow:

America's political discordance: The Trump voters who want progressivism

Trump voters backed abortion, minimum wage and family leave--but don't get that Project 2025 would take it away

Perhaps out of fear of insulting their audiences, the pundits, journalists, and political consultants engaged in the lengthy post-mortem about Donald Trump's horrific victory Tuesday are avoiding the most obvious cause: ignorance. Millions of people who desperately want more progressive policies cast their ballots for a man whose agenda is exactly the opposite of what they want.

In state after state, voters backed both Trump and ballot initiatives that advanced and protected progressive goals. Laws protecting abortion rights were backed by the majority of voters in most states, even deep-red ones like Missouri, Montana, and even Florida--where the initiative only failed because Republicans set a 60% supermajority threshold. In Missouri, 12% of voters backed both abortion rights and Trump. Red state voters also backed initiatives to raise the minimum wage, ensure paid sick and family leave, and even ban employers from forcing employees to sit through right-wing or anti-union presentations. Democrats like Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who are strongly associated with these progressive policies, were also able to win where Vice President Kamala Harris failed.

The problem wasn't Democratic policy or messaging. It's ignorance. As Heather "Digby" Parton wrote at Salon Wednesday, people backed Trump's "aesthetics and attitudes" but knew nothing about his policies. Before the election, Catherine Rampell and Youyou Zhou at the Washington Post polled voters about policies without revealing which candidate proposed them. Harris' were far more popular--even Trump voters generally liked her ideas more, as long as they knew they weren't hers.

www.salon.com

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