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data for progress
Voters Rank Billionaires, Then Corporate Landlords as Top Villains to US Society and Economy
The top villains, according to respondents, are the nation's nearly 1,000 billionaires, then corporate landlords. Rounding out the top 10 were sports gambling marketplaces, artificial intelligence companies, cryptocurrency firms, payday lenders, the Republican Party, social media giants, the Democratic Party, and for-profit universities.
Respondents were asked to rank each group or industry on a seven-point scale from "extremely negative" to "extremely positive."
Those with the most positive views were small businesses, libraries, regional banks and credit unions, charitable organizations, hospitals, churches, public K-12 schools, online shopping platforms, large grocery companies, big box retailers, and urgent care clinics.
"Within categories, we see some meaningful differences between individual actors—mom-and-pop landlords, small regional banks, public K-12 schools, and renewable energy companies are viewed more positively than their counterparts: corporate landlords, multinational banks, charter K-12 schools, and oil and gas companies," the progressive polling firm noted.
With the November midterm elections just four months away, and Democrats trying to seize control of both chambers of Congress as progressives within the party notch key wins over more moderate candidates, Data for Progress executive director Ryan O'Donnell said that "effective populist messaging requires calling out the actors actually making life worse for Americans, and right now, that includes Big Tech and the billionaires behind it."
"As AI continues to impact people's lives directly—whether it's a data center in their backyard or a job replaced by automation—AI companies and tech billionaires are setting themselves up to be the next big villains in American politics," he added.
Earlier this week, as the US Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority "gave their blessing for billionaires to buy even more influence over the politicians who represent us," the watchdog Public Citizen released a report about soaring corporate political spending since the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, including $517 million in this cycle so far.
Some of the top villains from Thursday's polling were key contributors to that figure: "Cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, Big Tech, and online betting corporations have collectively spent $294 million to influence federal elections in the 2026 midterm cycle."
Blasting the corporate spending as "a disaster for democracy," the report's author, Rick Claypool, said that "if the current, broken campaign finance system remains unchallenged—and corporate spending is allowed to drown out the voices of real voters and real people—these corporate campaigns will keep multiplying, even as voting rights for individual Americans face escalating attacks."
That report and the Data for Progress polling were notably published as more than 250 million people across the United States faced high temperatures tied to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency—and, as Common Dreams reported earlier Thursday, residents of communities with data centers are being asked to make sacrifices due to strained power grids.
Americans are also awaiting the fate of the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act—which includes a ban on corporate investors buying single-family homes to rent out—because Republican President Donald Trump has refused to sign it in an effort to bully GOP lawmakers into passing a legislative attack on voting rights.
In a comment that multiple congressional Democrats said shows Trump "does not care" about Americans' cost of living concerns, Trump on Monday called the affordable housing bill a "big yawn" compared with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America, Act that he wants Congress to send to his desk.
Majority of Americans Believe Waging War on Iran Benefits Israel More Than US
"The American public does not want another war in the Middle East," said Demand Progress senior policy adviser Cavan Kharrazian in a statement. "People see billions of taxpayer dollars being poured into a war while prices at home keep rising, and the risks of escalation continue to grow."
"US service members are being killed and injured, and civilian harm is mounting, including strikes that have hit an Iranian school and killed scores of children," Kharrazian continued, pointing to the apparent US attack on a girls' school in Minab. "There is no justification for this open-ended war of choice."
Those surveyed were divided over whether the Israeli government has too much or too little influence over US foreign policy, and whether the United States is providing too much or too little support to Israel. However, a majority of respondents, 53%, said that they disapprove of recent military strikes against Iran, which Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began on February 28.
That share dropped only slightly, to 51%, when people were asked their opinion of the strikes once informed that "Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US had to launch the war against Iran now because Israel was going to attack Iran anyway, which would cause Iran to respond by attacking US forces in the region."
Shortly after Rubio made those remarks to reporters on Capitol Hill, he and the White House attempted to walk them back. Trump himself publicly pushed back against the suggestion that Israeli officials convinced him to launch a new war in the Middle East with no end in sight, even claiming that "I might have forced their hand."
The new polling also suggests that continuing the war could have an impact at the ballot box in November, when Trump's Republican Party will try to retain its narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress. The survey shows respondents are less likely to vote for pro-war candidates or those prioritizing support for Israel.
According to Kharrazian: "The main issue before us now isn't whether the administration has explained its strategy clearly enough. Calls for more hearings or a clearer 'plan' miss the bigger picture; the war must end, full stop."
"The strategy we can all plainly see is bombing Iran into submission despite little indication that such a goal is achievable, while destroying infrastructure and killing more civilians across the country on an indefinite timeline," he said. "Members of Congress should listen to the public, clearly demand an end to this war now, assert their constitutional authority, and ensure not one penny more is spent on this disaster."
In early March, a short list of Democrats voted with nearly all Republicans in the US Senate and House of Representatives to reject war powers resolutions intended to halt Trump's assault on Iran. The upper chamber blocked another measure Wednesday evening.
Lawmakers have done so despite polling that has repeatedly made clear the US public is not thrilled with the war on Iran, whatever ultimately motivated it. Another Data for Progress survey published Thursday shows that 68% of Americans oppose deploying US ground troops to Iran. Additionally, 52% of those surveyed agreed that “going to war with Iran is not worth the risk because it will cost billions of dollars and result in the deaths of civilians and more American service members."
The war has already killed 13 US service members plus thousands of people across the Middle East, mostly in Iran and Lebanon—the latter of which Israel has returned to bombing, allegedly targeting Hezbollah, despite a November 2024 ceasefire related to the genocidal Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who previously tried to cut off some US weapons to Israel over its slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, on Thursday introduced joint resolutions of disapproval for arms sales to Netanyahu's government following its recent escalation of attacks against Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine.
Objections to US contributions to bloodshed in the region have been met with hostility from the Trump administration. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued Thursday that "the world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press, should be saying one thing to President Trump: 'Thank you.'"
Meanwhile, even a significant majority of Americans who voted for Trump in 2024—79%—want a swift end to the US-Israeli war in Iran, according to a Wednesday poll commissioned by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and The American Conservative.
"The American people have paid tens of billions to fund Israel's ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and now they are paying tens of billions more for a war that Netanyahu has lobbied for going back decades. The blank checks for Israel were a significant reason why Democrats lost the election in 2024, and Republicans are on the path to suffer the same fate," said Margaret DeReus, executive director of IMEU Policy Project.
"The so-called 'alliance' with Israel does not benefit the American people," DeReus added, "and it is time for a new chapter where our nation's leaders hold Israel accountable for its genocidal expansionism and endless aggression."
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