From fighting climate change to funding Planned Parenthood, the public has never been so out of step with a president
The election of Donald Trump has created a misperception that America has lurched far to the right. But as a nation – and on a slate of issues – America is more progressive than ever. Take some glaring examples: Trump, whose election was funded by more than $30 million from the NRA, has vowed to curb background checks for gun purchases, even though more than 90 percent of Americans want background checks applied to all gun sales. In his first week, Trump targeted millions of undocumented Americans for "priority" deportation. But according to a national exit poll, 70 percent of voters want "illegal immigrants" to be granted legal status, with only 25 percent favoring deportation.
With numbers like these, how did Trump ever get elected? His campaign strategy was to stake out multiple, and often conflicting, stances across dozens of issues, tempting voters of all political stripes to convince themselves that the version of Trump they found appealing was the authentic Trump. In fact, Jane C. Timm at NBC News cataloged 141 different Trump positions across 23 major campaign issues – an average of six positions on each – amounting to "the most contradictory and confusing platform in recent history." The strategy worked; Trump won support from a quarter of voters who said they wanted policies more liberal than those of the Obama administration.
As president, Trump has moved to the right. But national polls underscore that an agenda reflective of American priorities would look almost nothing like the policies now being crafted by the White House and Republican leaders in Congress.
