Chart of the Day: America Moves Left Under Trump

The Trump presidency has moved America left, The Economist reports.

Americans now favor “big government” policies more than they have at any time since 1961, according to political scientist James Stimson of the University of North Carolina, who analyzes opinion polling to get a read on public policy mood. “Public opinion is contradictory: many more Americans describe themselves as conservative than as liberal; yet Americans prefer left-leaning policies to right-leaning ones, even when these are accompanied by the promise of higher taxes,” The Economist notes.

Stimson adds that the leftward shift is more than just a personal reaction to Trump “because its defining items are the issues of American politics of earlier generations, the New Deal and Great Society agenda.” But if Democrats have an advantage on policy, Vox’s Matthew Yglesias explains that, due to the dynamics of modern politics and a problematic Senate election map, their chances of actually enacting a more activist government agenda remain relatively low.

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