How the Left Helped Trump Win

The left’s upper-crust appeal is well established. The most comprehensive study of this phenomenon is a 2018 report from the More in Common Foundation. This study divided Americans into seven ideological categories, with “progressive activists”—the most left-wing category of all—representing 8 percent of the population. Progressive activists had the highest average incomes and educational levels of any of the seven categories. The basic picture was confirmed in a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center, which divided the US population into nine categories, from right to left, with “the progressive left” being the farthest left. The study showed that the progressive left was one of “the two most highly educated groups overall.”