Americans Say they Want Change but then Hate it

Matt Yglesias responds to a guy who noted that the more Trump is restrained by outside forces, the more popular he is:

You see in every poll that a huge share of the population is absolutely fed up with the status quo, hates the establishment wants to see major changes to our political and economic system, and has a deep yearning for politicians who'll "get things done" and deliver change.

At the same time, *in practice* if you look at hyper-constrained elected officials like Phil Scott in Vermont or Andy Beshear in Kentucky — guys facing massive opposition party legislative majorities that make action borderline impossible — voters love those guys. [JCB: The most popular governor in Maryland's history was Larry Hogan when he was in the hospital getting cancer treatment.]

As @lionel_trolling was saying, beyond the atmospherics Trump consistently gets higher marks from the public when his bark is louder than his bite. Actually implementing sweeping MAGA-style policy change alarms people.

But you see similar thermostatic backlash to the implementation of actual progressive policy change. Scott [a Republican] became governor of Vermont in the first place because they tried to do Medicare for All. The blue trifecta in Minnesota collapsed after Tim Walz signed a bunch of bills.

I think it is largely reasonable for Americans to be risk-averse in their attitude toward policy change — we live in basically the richest society of all time — but it's hard to square that practical skepticism of change with the equally real intense demand for sweeping change.

Is it ever.