Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Will Democrats Move Left on Economic Issues?


New York Times columnist David Leonhardt says they should.

And he is probably correct from a Democratic electability perspective. The masses simply have no appreciation for free markets and believe in strong leaders who will
"manage things."

Leonhardt writes:

One of the worst pieces of advice that Democrats are getting is to move right on economic policy in order to win back swing voters. It tends to come from centrists who are confusing their own policy wishes with smart political advice.
Some new survey data — which Lee Drutman highlights in an op-ed — help show how misplaced this advice is. Most swing voters lean notably left on economic policy, the data show. It’s true of people who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 but not Hillary Clinton in 2016 and even of those who switched from Mitt Romney in 2012 to Clinton in 2016.
“Moving right on economics,” Drutman writes, “will not help Democrats with any of these voters and could even risk losing some, demoralizing an energized base, especially younger voters.”
The situation on cultural issues is different, however. On those issues, the survey data show, many more swing voters lean right — especially those who switched from Obama in 2012 to Donald Trump in 2016. (The second chart in Drutman’s piece is particularly striking.)




3 comments:

  1. I wonder if foreign policy is considered a culture issue or not. Given how Trump won by campaigning on changing the direction of foreign policy (granted it was all BS but still), Obama won also on promising foreign policy change but was also BS. Also didn't they realize that they're victory in the 2006 election was alot to do with going more centrist than left?

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  2. Leaning "Right" on social issues also means anti-libertarian. The battle is between the Meathead Democrats and those who are essentially Archie (Trump) Democrats. Are we going to have cultural Marxist Dirigisme or traditional social authoritarian Dirigisme?

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  3. I'm hard-pressed to think of how they could possibly move further left than they already are. Can current Democrats point to any area of life for which they don't already advocate central planning?

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