Trump and the Tea Partiers before him made gains with ordinary Americans because a corporatized Democratic Party stopped delivering for them. This was especially true in rural and small metro areas that were once manufacturing centers, where the falloff in support for Democrats in 2016 and 2020 was just sickening.

To some extent, Trump was able to use ethnic nationalism and racism as a proxy for economic populism. But Make America Great Again, however bogus, also signaled a concern for lost living standards and economic dignity.

Joe Biden comes out of the same neoliberal milieu that produced the vulnerabilities of Democrats in the Clinton and Obama eras. Most of his appointees are alums of those administrations.

But thankfully, events are pushing Biden to govern as more of a progressive than he may have intended. And public opinion wants him to do that.

A new, must-read report from Demand Progress, titled "Americans Want a Progressive Biden Administration," is based on extensive polling that looked deeply into whether most Americans want a corporate-influenced Biden administration. They don’t.

You should read the entire report, but here are a few highlights.

By majorities of more than two to one, Americans don’t want Biden to appoint corporate execs, consultants, or lobbyists. The majorities are even larger when it comes to people from regulated industries or companies that have benefited from bailouts.

Biden has appointed most of his Cabinet, but there are still heads of regulatory agencies and more than 1,000 subcabinet officials to be named. Is it at this level that corporate types tend to burrow in.

As the Demand Progress report suggests, this is about far more than symbolism. Depending on who staffs his presidency, the actual policies will benefit either ordinary people or the powerful industries that have rigged the rules and commandeered nearly all the economy’s gains. If Biden views these people as toxic appointees, and makes that clear to the public, the voters will respond.

The Demand Progress report also found that large majorities of Americans, including 60 percent of Republicans, view the revolving door between industry and government as a big problem. And even larger majorities, the report found, were especially wary of Big Tech.

You should read the entire report. Even more importantly, Biden should—and act accordingly.