Most Americans don't have a problem with DEI

Online hysterics about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs just don't reflect the views of most of the country.

Republican hysteria over DEI programs has become so central to their platform that Donald Trump is building his campaign around it — but new polling shows a limited audience for that message among Americans.

Only 38% of respondents had an unfavorable view of DEI according to YouGov / Economist’s latest weekly poll. A 42% plurality has a favorable opinion of DEI, while 20% of Americans had no opinion at all.

DEI has been a major target among reactionaries in recent years, both in opposition to egalitarian politics and as a deliberate vehicle of opposition to socialism. The YouGov poll takes on added significance, however, in light of Republican efforts to attack Kamala Harris as a “DEI candidate.” As Asawin Suebsaeng and Andrew Perez reported in Rolling Stone on Friday, such attacks are at the center of Republican nominee Donald Trump’s plan to take back the White House.

The crosstabs of this poll tell a familiar story: support for DEI is highest among women, nonwhites, and young people, while opposition is highest among men, white people, and the old.

The data on income, however, contradicts a major narrative on the right: that DEI is an agenda that the rich are imposing on the poor, who are overwhelmingly hostile to it. According to YouGov, opposition to DEI was highest among respondents earning six figures or more. In fact, rich people feel more passionately about DEI than other income group, with 37% voicing a “very unfavorable” opinion of it. Workers making $50k or less, meanwhile, are the only income group that voiced net support of DEI — and they did so by a margin of 10%.

Though it seems like the Harris campaign is settling on calling the right “weird”, Trump’s rhetoric presents them with a real opportunity. In his fixation on DEI, Trump is abandoning whatever populist positioning he may have leaned on in the past in favor of pandering to the demented racism of rich old white guys. This gives Harris a wide opening to rise above this nonsense and focus on the material needs of Americans, especially the poor. Her choice may well decide who occupies the White House in four months.