The authors argue that “deliverism”—the belief that passing materially beneficial policies will reliably translate into durable political loyalty—is collapsing under real-world evidence.
They open with the expanded Child Tax Credit: despite a dramatic fall in child poverty, many recipients felt suspicion (“what’s the catch?”) and the policy generated little gratitude or electoral payoff.
More broadly, they suggest Biden’s large economic agenda shows you can “deliver” and still fail to shift approval or stop authoritarian candidates: people may back progressive policies yet vote for strongmen.
Messaging and implementation gaps matter, but the deeper issue is a cultural shift—rising unhappiness, anxiety, loneliness, and social disintegration (“anomie”) that economic gains alone don’t cure.
Authoritarians exploit this by offering identity, belonging, and emotive stories with villains and heroes—often more potent than technocratic competence. So progressives need to take identity, emotion, and story seriously: not just what policies do, but how they’re fought for and narrated, including clearer blame on powerful corporate actors.
They also call for engaging issues the left often sidelines – crime, addiction, mental health, social media harms—and treating social connection as a core policy priority.
And they argue for policies that offers real community and on-ramps, so people become protagonists rather than passive beneficiaries.
Their closing metaphor is to pair material provision with belonging—“the milk with the cloth”—because democratic resilience depends on dignity, meaning, and everyday lived security, not economics alone.