The president’s re-election team might want to consult the latest Bloomberg Businessweek as it considers more populist appeals to boost taxes on “millionaires and billionaires.”
Recent Democratic Presidential candidates who have tried to win votes by pitting one class of Americans against another haven’t found it to be an especially effective tool. Bill Clinton was elected in 1992 in part by promising to tax the wealthy, but won a second term after moving to the right and embracing welfare reform and the North American Free Trade Agreement, both opposed by liberals. Al Gore’s populist campaign slogan, “The People vs. The Power,” did not give him much traction against very nonpopulist George W. Bush. In 2008, John Edwards ended up far behind his rivals for the nomination after depicting himself as the champion of the underclass with his “two Americas” theme.
One reason Us vs. Them campaigns often falter: Most Americans don’t think of things that way. Despite the miserable economy, a Washington Post-Pew Research Center Poll in September found that 52 percent object to the notion that the country is divided into haves and have-nots, a number that hasn’t changed much in the past decade. “I’m not sure populism is a losing proposition,” says Michael Dimock, associate director of the Pew Research Center. “But it’s not something people inherently grab onto.”
