Dem 47
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GOP 53
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Voters Don't Like Plutocracy

As long as we are on the subject of Democratic messaging, we had an item yesterday discussing what aspects of the Trump administration the voters like or don't like (at least, according to the polls). The upshot was that the anti-immigrant stuff has majority support, at least for now, while most of the rest of the Trump agenda is getting a mixed response or a negative one.

Yesterday, AP-NORC released a new poll that builds on the item from yesterday, and that suggests another potential line of attack for the Democratic Party. In short, Americans don't like a government run by billionaires. Not one bit.

The numbers are pretty stark. According to the poll, 60% of voters overall, 78% of Democrats, 61% of independents, and even 35% of Republicans do not think Donald Trump should be taking his cues from the billionaire class. Only 12% of voters overall, 8% of Democrats, 7% of independents and 20% of Republicans think that this approach to governance is a good idea. The remainder of respondents don't have an opinion. Nonetheless, the numbers say that if you take the average voter, it is five times more likely that they are anti-plutocracy than that they are pro-plutocracy.

In 1948, during what was perceived as a longshot reelection campaign, Harry S. Truman made "the do-nothing Congress" the central element of his pitch. And, obviously, it worked. That's not quite the same thing as running against the moneyed classes, but it's not far off. Either way, it's a version of David and Goliath, where the Democrats represent the little guy and the underdog, and the Republicans represent the entrenched, well-to-do power structure. If the Democratic Party of 2025 can come up with a pithy way to frame the Trump administration as servant to the rich and powerful, that could be very effective. "Plutocracy" is probably a bit too SAT-vocab-ish, but something more plebeian could land.

Obviously, Trump is likely to give (inadvertent) support to this line of attack with his policy choices, like a big tax cut for the wealthy. That said, he is himself a billionaire (on paper, at least), and he won the election, so billionaires are not personae non gratae, per se. We interpret this polling result as saying, in so many words, "We don't like how much power Elon Musk has."

So, if the "president of the billionaires" bit starts to do real damage to Trump and the Republicans, then there's a way to potentially help fix that, namely cutting Musk loose. It's another reason to think that this relationship just cannot last, long-term. That said, if Trump hangs on to Musk too long, the damage might be done, even if they eventually part ways. (Z)



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