President-elect Donald Trump was propelled into office largely due to a campaign message that promised to lift up working-class people and restore America to its former greatness. Yet, since the election, he has begun assembling the wealthiest Cabinet in modern American history, featuring corporate chief executives, millionaires and billionaires, and […] Read more »
Where Were Trump’s Votes? Where the Jobs Weren’t
Did the white working class vote its economic interests? … Yes, the economy has added millions of jobs since President Obama took office. Even manufacturing employment has recovered some of its losses. Still, less-educated white voters had a solid economic rationale for voting against the status quo — nearly all […] Read more »
To move forward, Democrats must address class and race
How can the Democratic Party best respond to Donald Trump’s election? The current debate rages around whether to unify around class or instead to build a coalition of identity groups, key among them racial minorities. We reject as fundamentally flawed the implicit assumption that class and race are incompatible bases […] Read more »
Trump tax plan would shock Trump voters
… Trump voters believe (75 percent to 25 percent) that with Trump’s tax plan the percent of income paid to taxes will fall more for the middle class than the rich (Clinton voters were 33 percent to 67 percent in the other direction). Despite what his tax plan actually says […] Read more »
The American Dream, Quantified at Last
… These days, people are arguably more worried about the American dream than at any point since the Depression. But there has been no real measure of it, despite all of the data available. No one has known how many Americans are more affluent than their parents were — and […] Read more »
Americans Expect Economic Improvement in a Deeply Divided Country
After the bruising 2016 campaign, Americans are broadly optimistic that Donald Trump’s election will invigorate the economy but fearful that it will further divide the nation along lines of class, race and party. While a solid three-fifths of American adults indicated that as a result of the election they expect […] Read more »