Democrats Need to Promote Opportunity, Not Pessimism
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Economy, General PoliticsThird Way, a center-left political think-tank has released a plan that they think can help Democrats recapture middle-class votes. Given that Democrats across the board have been losing the middle-class vote by 10-20% points, reconnecting with this large voting segment is a vital step if Democrats want to return to power.
First and foremost, the plan admonishes Democrats for their constant pessimism about the economy as well as their attacks against the wealthy and big business. Instead, the plan encourages the Democrats to adopt what I’d call a “we can do this together� attitude focused on identifying and expanding opportunities.
The plan is best boiled down by former Texas Representative and centrist-Democrat Martin Frost in a piece for FOX News.
(1) Get the nation’s fiscal house in order by controlling entitlement spending, reining in budget deficits and “holding the federal government to the same standards of efficiency and competitiveness that are demanded of the nation’s companies and workers.�
(2) Invest in infrastructure to create jobs of the future by investment in research and pure science and wiring the nation for advanced information technology.
(3) Help businesses keep jobs in America by containing health care costs, lifting some of the burden of retirement security off of business and punishing countries that use unfair trade tactics that harm American companies.
(4) Make college the goal of all young Americans by expanding the tax deductibility of college tuition for middle class parents.
(5) Provide all Americans with affordable health insurance in the form of “competition-based health care reform.�
Sounds like some very real, very solid ideas. But can the Democrats package it? Can they say “we have no desire to punish the wealthy, or Wal-Mart or Exxon-Mobil�let’s focus on helping the middle class achieve the dreams they know they can achieve. Let’s keep opportunities strong and remove obstacles.�
Can they? It would be nice to see.
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May 10th, 2006 at 11:51 am
I’m sorry this is more blah. No specifics.
Contain health care costs? How? We need specifics. OK maybe single payer will reduce administrative costs from over 30% to the world average of half that. Maybe. But be specific.
Build infrastructure? What infrastructure? Johnny boy the pork is calling. Specific proposals please.
College? Why? Why not craft schools and technical schools? And we need to decide how to allocate resources. Maybe make things more simple and eliminate a lot of those lawyer and accountant jobs? We are creating a mandarin society of protected niches. Colleges are a part of it. Why not redefine education.
Where does the money come from incidently?
This isn’t a proposal . It’s feel good pap. And the fact that it persiades does indicate a need for real education, not the blab, blur run of buzzwords that passes for writing among today’s humanities graduates.
May 10th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
Angie, I think you’re being over-critical. For one, the report itself goes into a lot more detail than do these highlights.
Secondly, you need to have goals before you put detail out the specifics. These are much more useful and achievable goals than say “impeach Bush” and “penalize Wal-Mart and Exxon-Mobile.”
And, as for the money, the first point in this list is to get the fiscal house in order. I have very little doubt that we could be funding some truly worthwhile projects if we stopped pouring so much into pork projects.
Third Way is not trying to deliniate out the exact course of action, just trying to take the debate and the Democrat thoughts in a new direction. I think what they have done is worth talking about seriously.
However, I do agree with you that the laser-like focus on getting every American into college is not a great proposal. I think there are ways to improve the skills and opportunities of our workforce through technical schools.
May 10th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Alan,
I think Angie has a good point. The goals stated above are so generic that anyone would support them. Maybe we should add world peace to the list.
Also, at the moment, pessimism seems to be working fine for the Dems. Dubya and the Repubs are in some big trouble right now and changing the subject by parading out an agenda is not the right thing to do. Further, a published agenda at this point would just give the Repubs more time to bash it before the elections in November.
I am all for a centrist governence but the Repubs have to be voted out of office before there is a chance of that happening.
May 10th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Alan,
First, it’s Exxon-Mobil. :)
As for what Blue says, I think you are wrong. Pessimism is working fine because the GOP is incompetent and naturally people look to other party when the governing party is messing up. But the Dems have to come up with a positive agenda instead of running the same “Impeach Bush-Culture of Corruption” line.
I also doubt that the route to centrist governance is simply getting the Dems into office. The far left controls the Democrats in the same way that the far right controls the Republicans. If having the Dems in power of Congress only means the investigations that Pelosi is talking about and not about dealing with some important issues like the deficit, then I don’t see this as any better than having the GOP in office.
May 10th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Dennis,
Regardless of why, pessimism is working for the Democrats right now. I agree that it will eventually stop working for them, but they still have a couple/few months before that happens, IMO.
I never said centrist governance would happen simply by electing Democrats. It won’t. What I do believe is that Democratic control of the House would be a first step to centrist governance. It certainly hasn’t happened with the Republicans in control.
May 10th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
You know, my father worked for Mobil for 30 years … you’d think I’d know how to spell it.
May 10th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
Pessimism appears to be working simply because the Republicans have been innefective. Consider 2004: the positive optimist vs. “I’m not him.” That was the strongest showing by any presidential candidate since Reagan (who was also optimistic).