Happy Thursday! In today’s newsletter, we explore the ideological imbalance in public policy schools, the impact of tariffs on households, and the rightward shift of working-class voters.

Edited by Sutton Houser and James Desio

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Topline: Within the debate about higher education’s leftward tilt, AEI’s Rick Hess finds that public policy schools reflect an even greater left-leaning bias. In America’s top 10 public policy schools, tenure-track facility with left-leaning affiliations outnumber their conservative colleagues by about 9 to 1.

Ideological Imbalance: While some argue the ideological imbalance is due to insufficient conservative applicants, Hess notes that since these schools often hire former government officials, it reasons that Republicans should make up about half the applicants.

Why Does It Matter? Public policy schools exist to educate the next generation of public servants, who often go on to occupy positions of influence in public life. Hess writes that balancing the ideology of these schools’ faculty would better prepare students to understand people and ideas across the political spectrum.

Topline: Examining President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff proposals, AEI’s Phil Gramm argues these policies could undercut the rest of Trump’s economic agenda. Gramm points out that an across-the-board tariff of at least 10% would likely hurt lower-income households and reduce wages.

Who Pays? He notes that the burden of the tariffs would be regressive, hurting lower and middle-income households more than higher-income households. A report from the Peterson Institute finds households in the bottom quintile would get hit the hardest by tariffs, with their purchasing power reduced by 4.2%, compared to less than 1% for the highest-quintile households.

Wage Woes: Gramm explains that imposing across-the-board tariffs would diminish wages as companies reshore the production of goods in the US. Competition of US companies would also suffer as the costs of production and component parts increase.

Topline: What happened to the Democrats’ identity as the party of the working class? AEI’s Ruy Teixeira explains why working-class voters feel, for the first time in 80 years, that Democrats are focused more on cultural issues than on economic security.

2012 vs. 2024: The recent election reveals nonwhite working-class voters are increasingly shifting away from the Democratic Party. With Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, nonwhite working-class voters’ support for Democrats decreased 16 points from Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 and 35 points from Barack Obama’s victory in 2012.

The Trade-Off: Working-class voters view Democrats’ emphasis on a cultural agenda as a direct disregard for economic issues like inflation. These cultural issues cater to more liberal college-educated voters. Among swing voters, excessive focus on cultural issues was the most important reason voters chose Trump over Harris.