"The American Rescue Plan’s temporary expansion of the child tax credit lifted more than 2 million children out of poverty, resulting in an astounding 46 percent reduction in child poverty...(but) the suite of progressive economic policies Biden enacted hasn’t made a dent in his approval ratings. In fact, in a poll from early 2023 Sixty-two percent of Americans said that Biden has accomplished 'not very much' or 'little or nothing' during his presidency."
This article draws on ideas that the authors develop further in their forthcoming book Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World. They make a clear case that there is no linear and direct relationship between economic policy and people’s political allegiances. Instead, unhappiness is a very strong predictor of voting behavior. Being extremely unhappy more than doubled a person’s likelihood of voting for Trump in 2016, and the unhappiest counties were the Trumpiest.
Most importantly, and most hopefully, they outline four strategies that are crucial to countering authoritarianism; all involve broadening our - centrists, liberals, and progressives - ideas of how to talk to people. They start with taking seriously fears and anxieties that we have too often tended to ignore or downplay.
Article: The Death of “Deliverism”
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