The Democrats need to learn that they would crush , absolute domination , if they adopted leftwinged economic populism . Go look at polls on an issue by issue basis . The majority want single payer or the public option . The majority want regulations on big business . The majority want higher taxes on the rich . See , when you poll people and ask them if they ' re liberal or conservative you end up with a lot saying they ' re conservative because the world liberal is a dirty word in American politics . But when you get rid of the partisan language and just ask people on a policy by policy basis what their beliefs are you ' ll find the US is overwhelmingly progressive . When the average American is asked to draw a line on a graph to represent their ideal wealth distribution they draw a line more equal than current day Sweden . The people want economic populism and if you can give it to them without the racist baggage you will sweep the country .