NEW LIBERALS PROFILE
POLICY SURVEY
FALL 2023
OVERVIEW
New Democracy continued our introspective look into the Center for New Liberalism community with the second installment of our deep dive series, the Policy Survey. We sampled 493 New Liberals online and found a hopeful narrative.
KEY FINDINGS
Housing is New Liberals’ most important issue with the need to focus on building more housing.
New Liberals show signs of persuadability in various issues, including education and fiscal policy.
New Liberals are pragmatic, placing value on principles over personal experience.
New Liberals believe that housing is integrally tied to education, safety, and jobs.
New Liberals see “earn and learn models” such as apprenticeships as the top workforce intervention policymakers should prioritize to ensure current and future workers succeed in the US economy.
New Liberals are optimistic about technology.
HOUSING
More than 80% of New Liberals believe that housing is the most important economic issue Americans are currently facing. New Liberals reject the populist theory that rising housing costs are driven by bad markets, and instead believe that the current crisis is the result of bad policy. An overwhelming majority believe that we need to focus on building more housing units, and most New Liberals are relatively unified around which reforms should be pursued.
EDUCATION
& WORKFORCE
A striking data point centers around the observation that CNL members care about policy principles even when they don’t match their shared experiences. For example, 88% of New Liberals have a college degree, yet here we see that only 49% believe that college is the best path to prepare people for in-demand jobs.
When asked about workforce interventions introduced by policy makers, the majority of New Liberals (84%) believe that earn and learn models such as apprenticeships should be the priority.
TECHNOLOGY
When asked what investments America should be making in order for it to advance as a global tech leader, 74% of New Libs agreed that investments to preK-college and beyond would be their top choice, followed by federal investments in critical tech.
While New Liberals do believe that new technology like AI should have better federal guardrails, they hold an optimistic view of technology, and believe it helps them in their policy area.
FISCAL
When it comes to the American fiscal landscape, New Liberals are primarily (44%) concerned that the interest we pay on our growing debt threatens to crowd out critical public investment in infrastructure, education, and scientific research.
This polled higher than the belief that young Americans will have to pay more in taxes than their parents did just to service growing debts incurred by previous generations if no action is taken.
When asked about which of the top two political parties New Liberals believe is fiscally responsible, New Libs clearly believe the Democrats are and the Republicans are not.
HEALTH
Another example of principles and pragmatism over personal experience, can be found in our healthcare data. Our survey shows that while only 18% have been personally affected by the overturn of Roe v. Wade, over 80% believe that it is important for Democrats to focus on protecting access to abortion.
While more than half (58%) believe that their healthcare expenses have become more expensive, New Liberals are more diverse in their belief of why healthcare costs have risen with the top two reasons being health insurance deductible (32%) and health insurance copays (28%). Almost tied for third, unexpected medical bills or prescription drug costs tallied each at 18%.
TRADE
New Liberals believe in the free movement of goods which showed up in our survey with 90% of respondents saying that between doing more help or harm, tariff harm U.S. workers, families, and businesses.
Trade policy approaches similar to President Obama were greatly favored over President Biden and President Trump.
Listed in line with options such as taxation and budget balance, spending on public projects, immigration, and more, the New Liberals find that the most important economic policy issue to the U.S. economy is housing.
The full New Liberals Profile — Policy Survey report is also available in PDF form and can be downloaded using the button below.