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Over at Vox, Matt Yglesias shares a new survey from Data for Progress about public support for various progressive policies. Yglesias is able to find a silver lining here, but I sure dont. Heres a breakdown of all the issues that scored at least 55 percent support:

DFP read each respondent an argument for and against each policy, and as you can see this tanked the results: not a single one polled higher than 61 percent. Even vague, feel-good no-brainers like clean air, lead paint cleanup, and stopping Wall Street looting couldnt break the 61 percent barrier, and thats crazy. I mean, whos against any of that?

Of the other five, two are pretty small bore: allowing the feds to broaden the licensing of generic drugs and allowing police or family to petition a judge to take away guns from someone who presents a danger. So that leaves a grand total of three policy proposals that are both meaningful and poll above 55 percent:

Credit card interest rates are, in practice, governed by a Supreme Court decision from 1978, so theres little that a president could do about that. Legalizing marijuana would be hard since its governed by international treaties.

So theres only one thing left: guaranteeing 12 weeks of family leave. This is popular, and as far as I know, its also constitutional.

The DFP list is pretty thorough, which means that this is it. Theres precisely one issue thats (a) popular, (b) feasible, and (c) big enough to be a campaign issue. Medicare for All polls below 50 percent. Canceling student loans polls below 50 percent. A carbon tax polls below 50 percent. The Green New Deal polls below 50 percent. Border decriminalization polls way below 50 percent.

Theres really not much to work with here. I chose 55 percent as a cutoff because I was being generous: the truth is that almost anything below 60 percent is likely to be a loser once Republicans start going after it. I just dont see any progressive issues that look like sure campaign winners.

But this isnt as bad as it looks. There are plenty of issues that are on the edge and might be a net positive with suburban voters that Democrats need. Whats more, policies like this arent likely to be what wins or loses the 2020 election anyway. November is going to be a referendum on Donald Trump, and what Democrats really need is good ways to convince folks on the center right that Trump is even worse than they think. Maybe DFP will poll that next.

Excerpt from:
Progressives Are Short on Popular Campaign Promises This Year - Mother Jones