WSJ Piece: Americans Want Populist Policies That Defy Traditional Political Labels

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Americans in both parties back government-imposed price caps and other market interventions to make life more affordable, suggesting new support for populist ideas that were once largely outside the political mainstream.

That’s the takeaway of a new Wall Street Journal survey that asked respondents what they want from their elected officials and the political system. Voters of all partisan stripes strongly support capping the cost of prescription drugs, child care and credit-card interest rates.

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Large majorities, for example, support both strong border security and a pathway to citizenship for many people in the country illegally, the poll finds. A near-majority of Democrats agrees with Republicans and independent voters that people should show a photo ID when balloting to ensure that only citizens vote.

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Nearly three-quarters of voters support a cap on child-care costs for working families, an idea backed by liberal Democrats, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.). Nearly three-quarters support the idea of a government website to guide consumers to discounted drugs, which President Trump put into practice with his “Trump Rx” site.

And nearly four in five voters support capping credit-card interest rates at 10%. That’s drawn bipartisan support in Congress, with progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and conservative Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) backing legislation to do so, and Trump calling for a similar measure.

Many of the policy ideas drawing strong support in the survey could be classified as populist—favoring consumers or average citizens over the established powers, such as the wealthy, health insurers or other corporations.

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Michael Strain, an economist with the center-right American Enterprise Institute, said economic stresses dating to the 2008 financial crisis, the 2020 pandemic and post-pandemic inflation had broadened the policy discussion to ideas that were once “very far outside the norm of what political leaders discussed in the past.” It’s a shift that is drawing some Republicans into areas where Democrats and liberals have long been more comfortable.

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Of 16 policies the survey tested that call on the government to help Americans with the cost of living, access to healthcare or change taxation, 14 drew majority support, including 10 that were backed by about two-thirds or more of voters. The least-popular among these ideas: Trump’s proposal to send $5,000 checks to all adults if Republicans retain their congressional majorities in the midterm elections. Fewer than one-quarter of voters supported it.

The other affordability idea that voters rejected came from a Democratic socialist: Having the government open stores to sell discounted groceries, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani has proposed in New York, drew only 37% support.

Raising taxes on the wealthy, a core populist impulse, proved popular among voters in the survey—except with Republicans. Two-thirds of voters would raise taxes on people with million-dollar incomes, while a majority of Republicans rejected that idea. About 60% in the survey supported a wealth tax on billionaires, but only about one-third of Republicans backed that proposal.

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A third taxation proposal—raising taxes on high-earners to extend the solvency of the Social Security system—drew majority support from Democrats and independents, while Republicans were about evenly divided.

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Some populist ideas are gaining traction in Washington. The proposed cap on credit-card rates, sponsored in the Senate by Sanders and Hawley, is also backed by the progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and MAGA-aligned Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R., Fl.).

Lawmakers passed a measure this year restricting the ability of institutional investors to buy large numbers of homes—an effort to restrain housing prices that drew support from 75% of voters in the Journal survey. It became law despite Trump’s refusal to sign it.

But the survey finds that much of the public’s appetite for help from the government has been unaddressed.

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