A prominent Republican pollster is warning of a reckoning coming in corporate America, and he said business leaders need to be aware of many peoples’ frustrations with wealth inequality and how that’s driving the rise of Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic primary.
Pollster Frank Luntz gave an interview to CNBC late Friday, referencing previous comments made by Salesforce founder and co-CEO Marc Benioff, who argued that “capitalism as we know it is dead.”
“I really strongly believe that capitalism as we know it is dead … that we’re going to see a new kind of capitalism and that new kind of capitalism that’s going to emerge is not the Milton Friedman capitalism that’s just about making money,” Benioff said. “And if your orientation is just about making money, I don’t think you’re going to hang out very long as a CEO or a founder of a company.”
Luntz said Benioff’s warning hit the nail on the head.
“I say to corporate leaders who are watching today: If you don’t listen to what Marc said, if you don’t find a way to connect to people you serve, your employees and the communities and the customers themselves, then you will face a backlash at the polls on Election Day,” Luntz said. “And you will rue the day.”
Warren has positioned herself as a champion of the working class ready to take on Wall Street and break up big banks, big tech — and the billionaire class altogether. Warren has rolled out a seemingly endless number of economic proposals and wealth taxes that will create “big, structural change.”
Warren’s signature wealth tax would target the wealthiest Americans, levying a 2% tax on wealth above $50 million and a 3% tax on wealth above $1 billion.
And previous reports show that Wall Street is so alarmed by Warren’s proposals that bigwig Democratic donors have threatened to sit out the election altogether — or back incumbent President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, Warren’s message is quickly growing in popularity among progressive voters. Luntz’s polling shows Americans, including a “bare majority of Republican voters,” overwhelmingly support Warren’s wealth tax plan at a 75% clip.
“The attitudes and the core principals and priorities of the American people have shifted over the last three years,” Luntz said. “We are no longer pro-capitalist, which is why the language and messaging matters so much.”
Luntz said there are so many people who feel the economy isn’t working for them, they’re angry toward those who “figured out how to do well.”
“They are absolutely responding favorably to what Elizabeth Warren is saying, even if the ideas are so extreme,” Luntz told CNBC before adding that Warren is the odds-on favorite to win the nomination and face Trump., which likely won’t bode well for him in a debate.
“She’s a brilliant debater,” Luntz said. “She knows how to begin her statements, how to use facts, how to challenge Donald Trump, how to empathize with the average working-class voter. She’s really good right now.”