One way to make basic income work politically is make it conditional upon providing something other than the actual market value of said something, at least initially.
For example, the Earned Income Tax Credit in the U.S. already effectively creates negative taxes for certain people, but only if they have "earned" income. While this isn't as efficient as a pure negative income tax or basic income, it's a good start.
You could also try paying people a basic income for community service, voting, registering for the draft, etc.
Unfortunately once you start doing that it loses its appeal because its foundation has been ripped out from beneath it.
First you start with basic civic duties. Then there are the things that are a bit more problematic in principle but'd still have a broad base of support--denying it to murderers and pedophiles and then all of a sudden anyone who's been convicted of a felony. Then, whoah, anyone who's committed a misdemeanor, and then you've got to start pre-emptively giving drug tests to anyone who might want to claim it. And then you add in ideas like "well, if you're disabled or a civil servant you should get more" and "obviously if you're a billionaire you shouldn't get any," and then if you make seven figures, then six, then five. And then "well, people shouldn't be spending money on Obamaphones, let's make it so that only food and housing can be purchased with it." And then only certain kinds of food and certain kinds of housing, TBD by policymakers and the helpful white papers that corporations specializing in those areas are happy to provide for free.
And then at the end of it all you end up with the deeply broken welfare system we have now, one that encourages dependency, dehumanizes recipients, and incentivizes against work, while simultaneously throwing away huge gobs of social value through administrative costs and corruption.
The scenario you outline is pretty speculative. Moreover, we're assuming that a pure basic income is politically unpalatable. Given that constraint, I'd rather take a half-assed version over nothing at all.
Also, if you keep the narrative simple and consistent, and the initial base is broad enough, I think it can maintain its appeal. The message behind Social Security is that you're entitled to payments because you put money in initially -- even if you ultimately get out more than you put in. As such, it's proven to be surprisingly resilient to attempts to impose restrictions on it.
Likewise, because the EITC is administered through the tax system, which everyone participates in -- regardless of whether you're a felon or not. Because it's framed as a tax benefit that everyone is potentially eligible for, it's also held up surprisingly well.
Dan Ariely has written extensively on psychological research that involves paying people for various activity.
Paying immediately removes intrinsic benefit and self-motivation. If before you were (and considered yourself) a great sport for coaching a local kids' baseball league and volunteering at a library over the weekend, once the money enters the equation, you're just another chump trying to pull money out of the system, grinding at it before you can go home and relax.
That's an important point, and your general sketch is certainly correct, though I think you are overstating and overgeneralizing the research a little bit. (That said, I grant that it's certainly possible your understanding is more correct than mine.)
> One way to make basic income work politically is make it conditional upon providing something other than the actual market value of said something, at least initially.
That's called a "behaviorally conditioned social welfare program", and along with means-tested social welfare programs, its exactly the efficiency and administrative problem that unconditional basic income sets out to solve. That's not making basic income work politically, that's the exact thing that basic income is proposed in opposition to.
For example, the Earned Income Tax Credit in the U.S. already effectively creates negative taxes for certain people, but only if they have "earned" income. While this isn't as efficient as a pure negative income tax or basic income, it's a good start.
You could also try paying people a basic income for community service, voting, registering for the draft, etc.