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How the diploma divide splits both parties
By Will Marshall
PPI's President
for The Hill
Democrats and Republicans couldn’t be farther apart in political outlook. With distance comes fear and loathing: Each party views the other not just as misguided but as an alien menace to their idea of America.
Nonetheless, neither party is monolithic. Each has internal cleavages, varying shades of opinion reflecting differences in race, class, ethnicity, gender, religion and age. When it comes to deciding elections, the fault line that matters most is the diploma divide.
Since 2008, white voters with college degrees have gravitated steadily toward the Democrats. According to researcher Zach Goldberg, they outnumbered non-college white Democrats for the first time in 2020, and now probably also exceed the GOP share of college-educated whites.
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New from the Experts
Paul Weinstein, PPI Senior Fellow: Will Direct e-File Really Reduce Errors on Tax Filings?
⮕ PPI Blog
The US Government Says Women's Underwear Should Cost More than Men's, ft. Ed Gresser, Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets
⮕ CNN
Bernstein, Biden's Chief Economist Pick, Big Backer of 'Worker Power,' ft. Ed Gresser, Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets
⮕ Reuters
The US plan to become the world’s cleantech superpower, ft. Paul Bledsoe, Strategic Advisor
⮕ The Financial Times
Trade Fact of the Week: Currency trading is the largest market ever.
⮕ PPI's Trade Fact of the Week
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Woke isn’t enough: What Democrats must do to win back Black voters
By Markose Butler
Community Outreach and Training Director for PPI'sCenter for New Liberalism
For The Hill
In the years since Barack Obama left office, there have been two seemingly contradictory developments in Democratic Party politics. On one track is the Democratic Party’s leftward lurch into broader social justice advocacy in which anti-racism, dismantling white supremacy and other cultural issues commonly summed up by its detractors as “wokeness.” On the other is the recent drop in support for Democrats among African Americans, and especially Black men.
It’s clear that the Democratic Party has become an anti-racism party. Spend any time in progressive spaces and you’ll see that notions of equity and racial/social justice have permeated through the party.
It’s a great development for the party that was once the home of segregationist politicians. The problem is that this hasn’t worked well in bringing Black voters back to the party.
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Biden Shouldn't Rule Out a Social Security Commission
By Ben Ritz
Director for PPI's Center for Funding America’s Future
For The Wall Street Journal
The Biden administration has sensibly rejected attempts by some far-right Republicans to hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage in exchange for spending cuts. The administration now must show it is open to good-faith budget negotiations after the impasse over the federal debt limit is resolved.
Unfortunately, the White House made a bad call last week, when spokesman Andrew Bates referred to the idea of a bipartisan commission that would make recommendations to shore up the solvency of Social Security and/or Medicare as “a death panel.” This throwback to former Governor Sarah Palin’s 2009 attack on the Affordable Care Act is as wrong now as it was then. President Biden should reconsider his administration’s stance.
Social Security and Medicare are the foundation of American retirement security—and they are in jeopardy if Congress doesn’t act. Both programs spend more on benefits than they raise in dedicated revenue. When their trust funds are exhausted, current law requires that benefits automatically be reduced to the level that can be paid with incoming revenue. That day is coming: According to the Congressional Budget Office and the programs' trustees, it could be as soon as 2028 for Medicare Part A Hospital Insurance and 2033 for Social Security.
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For decades, US education reformers have struggled to narrow stubborn achievement gaps among White, Black and Hispanic students. With China driving hard to overtake America as the world’s largest and most dynamic economy, our country’s leaders should show a greater sense of urgency in closing another kind of achievement gap: the underwhelming performance of US students compared to their peers abroad.
As President Joe Biden often observes, the United States is locked in a “strategic competition” with China for economic and technological leadership in the 21st century. The United States won’t win this contest by continuing to tolerate mediocre public schools for the middle class and low-performing schools for low-income Americans.
China sees itself as the rising power in the world and the United States as a decadent and spent historical force. Under its ultranationalistic president, Xi Jinping, China is keen to demonstrate to developing countries the supposed superiority of its state-directed model for economic growth over the “chaos” of Western capitalism. Beijing also draws invidious comparisons between the “social harmony” enforced in increasingly totalitarian fashion by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and an America riven by internal political and racial strife.
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A Crash Course on Section 230: What it is and Why it Matters
By Malena Dailey
PPI's Technology Policy Analyst
For PPI Blog
Part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, Section 230 has become a widely debated and frequently misunderstood staple in the conversation about the regulation of tech companies. With calls for reform coming from both sides of the political aisle, on its face it seems as though there is a certain level of consensus around this issue when it comes to the moderation of online content. However, diving just below the surface reveals that could not be more untrue. With Democrats and Republicans coming at the issue from entirely opposite sides and the impacts of Section 230 being commonly misrepresented, it’s critical that any efforts at reform take a measured approach which considers the true positive impact this law has had on the dramatic expansion of the internet.
What does Section 230 say?
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on account of — any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected.
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Inclusive Entrepreneurship Is Key to Unlocking Equal Opportunity
By Myrto Karaflos
Senior Policy Associate at Prosperity Now
For PPI's Metro Federalism Caucus
America’s entrepreneurial ethos is widely touted as a cornerstone of our culture and one of the ways to achieve the “American Dream.” It is true that small businesses play a critical role in the economy, as they account for 99% of American employers. Business ownership can also be a source of wealth creation for many, with self employed individuals being wealthier, on average, than those who work for an employer.
However, the path towards becoming an entrepreneur and growing a successful business is fraught with obstacles for large segments of the population. Entrepreneurs of color, particularly Black and Latine, face many barriers that result in them having smaller, less profitable businesses when compared to those owned by White entrepreneurs.
In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic put a strain on many small businesses. It forced many of them to close in the early months of the crisis. It has also contributed to lingering societal and economic forces, such as inflation and the pivot to doing business online, that have changed the way small businesses operate. Black- and Latine owned businesses were particularly hard- hit. As government leaders focus on lessons learned from the pandemic, rising prices, and ways to strengthen U.S. economic resilience, they should seize the opportunity to invest in small business development that works to level the playing field for entrepreneurs of color.
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Applications Are NOW OPEN!
PPI’s Mosaic Project recently announced that the application portal for the project’s upcoming “Women Changing Policy Workshop” is now open. The next cohort of women will meet March 27 to March 29, 2023, and will focus exclusively on empowering broadband experts and women working to bridge the digital divide.
This is the sixth Women Changing Policy workshop. Previous workshops have included exclusive and candid conversations with seasoned media professionals, policy leaders, and representatives from the U.S. Congress.
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RADICALLY PRAGMATIC:
Joint Episode: The Neoliberal Podcast Discusses Inclusionary Zoning ft. Lauren Bealore of Prosperity Now
Lauren Bealore of Prosperity Now joins Jeremiah Johnson of The Neoliberal Podcast to talk about inclusionary zoning. They Discuss the history of inequity in housing markets, whether or not inclusionary zoning can mend those problems, and what good policies might look like.
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THE NEOLIBERAL PODCAST:
Competition with China and Friend-Shoring in East Asia ft. Noah Smith
Noah Smith joins the podcast for a whirlwind discussion of all things East Asia.
Why did Japan industrialize faster than its neighbors? Why was China so slow to do so? How are current trade tensions affecting China, and what are they doing about it? Should the US do more 'friend-shoring' with allies like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan? And what does the future hold for economies in East Asia?
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