What I would advise Democrats to do once the election is over and, I dearly hope, they have won is to develop a rhetorical framework for promoting key policy goals that links them together much as FDR's Four Freedoms concept did--Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want, etc. I would even suggest terming it the new Four Freedoms.
""Freedom" is a compelling concept. Freedom" can be freedom to do something good, or, freedom from some evil. A major role of democratic (small "d") government is to defend and increase freedoms. Freedom has been an effective word in the call to reverse the Dobbs decision and its aftermath. American progress has been built on increasing freedom. Keep reminding everyone who wants to guarantee and expand THEIR freeedoms.
Who is opposed to "freedom"? Not real Americans, etc. etc. Those people are actually "weird.""Weird" is another great, simple and direct word to keep pasting on the foreheads of the MAGA leadership. We need to keep reminding people how "weird" these people are, and how they are also dangerous threats.
PS
Beyonce has already given us a great theme song to promote such a program. It's not something to dismiss as unimportant.
But there is enough electorate willing to surge to give Republicans majorities once their worst screw-ups are slightly forgotten that this particular Freedom is insufficient for them for multiple elections in a row.
Too many people have backed themselves into the GOP corner, giving the Party a high floor, or, with a low or medium knowledge base, are reluctant to come to a systematic conclusion that Republicans are systematically and repeatedly a problem for the freedoms they care about the most. Or they simply do not have a hierarchy of freedoms they care about the most. So they drift around on vibes or whatever onesie or twosy is a grabbing their attention and standing outt for them in any given election year, and almost half the time,, its yielding GOP Presidential victories, and more often than that, GOP majorities in one or both Houses of Congress.
Unfortunately, many MAGA people have come to define "freedom" as the right to buy any weapon they wish to, the right to mock whatever group of people--race, ethnicity, gender or political inclination--they dislike, to once again be able to use the "n" word in public, to be from taxes or civic responsibility, and the freedom to impose white Christian values on everyone else whether they like it or not. It is a highly reactionary definition--defensive and defiant and highly uncomfortable with the way the world is changing. It found a home in the Republican Party and found a leader in Trump. We need to redefine "freedom" in a more positive and forward looking way that will in time resonate even with these people. Much the way we have found we can steal "USA, USA" from the right. It will take time but it can be done. It must be done.
MAGAs are also the last people who would convert or be persuaded. They are the last people who you should allow to control your feelings.
If it was only MAGA true believers voting Republican, they would not control any Branch of government. There would just be some outsized conservative Federalist Society with rabbit-holed MAGA and Christian Right outsized influence on the judiciary.
Otherwise, Democratic favoring elections (would not have been happening when they have.
It's the non-participating voters, intermittently participating voters or people who have somehow swung between voting between the different major parties or between major parties and third party in different elections who need that extra degree of clarification about the sharp differences making the Dems a better bet, in the past, present, and future.
I strongly disagree that we should set our sights on Mars. Even apocalyptic conditions on Earth from climate change, nuclear war, or an asteroid would not leave our planet less habitable than Mars. We should instead dedicate maximum scientific and political energy and resources to preventing or at least mitigating threats to life on Earth, which are mostly human-driven.
Interstellar travel is nothing but a fun sci-fi genre... Not a realistic solution to escaping the eventual demise of all life on Earth... We have at least 3 billion years until the Sun dies. Maybe if we figure out our sh*t here on Earth and somehow manage not to kill ourselves off, humans or whatever we evolve into over the next few million years can revisit the mind-boggling physics of becoming space pilgrims.
We should instead hold up billionaires' wasteful, destructive, and delusional pursuit of human colonies in space as yet another reason that they should not be permitted to hoard humanity's wealth.
Agree. Defector ran a great piece on how "colonizing" Mars is a joke. No oxygen, no water, no magnetosphere to block radiation from space. What's the payoff?
Meanwhile, Brian's point about ours being a wealthy society is true, but it would be nice if Harris said, "We create a lot of wealth in this society. Where is it going?" Because we know where it's going--to the already-wealthy. So far the only candidate who's run on that is Bernie. Maybe more people are ready to hear it now.
What happened to treating Trump as kind of a joke? That was supposed to be the power of Walz and the weird stuff. The vibe shift from “what a clown” to Hitler is not great.
Weird and Fascist are both appropriate terms for trump, vance, maga, and what's left of the republican party. If it walks and talks like a duck, it's a duck! At least a duck has the courage to own what it is. Authoritarians and fascists are COWARDS who will never own or acknowledge their behavior.
At this point, the most important thing is GOTV. On messaging, a positive, hopeful message will best help inspire folks to do that. That’s the opposite of what the focus has been most recently. We need to get folks to come out from hiding under their beds to ward off the coming apocalypse, believe their vote matters, and vote, vote, vote.
I wonder how much the polls and media coverage are aimed at driving voters to get out and actually vote. It's a delicate balance - too much fear and people won't want to try. Not enough and they say "it's in the bag." BTW, my prediction - landslide for Harris.
Thanks for the link, Susan. Very interesting, and I agree with the conclusion about "fascist" versus "bully" and "brute." The word "fascist" is way too remote a concept - and not definitive. I'd rather hear Harris talk about "weird" and "take your freedom away" and "wants to control your life." Plenty of examples of all that. Here's why I think Harris wins big:
1. Women
2. Young people
3. Better GOTV efforts
4. Never Trumpers
5. People just sick of Trump's bull shit.
Of course, millions of Americans will vote for Trump. Why?
“We can feed the hungry, treat the sick, and insure the continued existence of mankind…”
Yet, we do not.
Why are these considered pale ambitions, against flying off to Mars?
Here’s another thing we could do, almost universally popular worldwide: eliminate nuclear weapons. There’s even a checkable process by which we humans could accomplish this in stages. Why shouldn’t the elimination of nuclear weapons be embraced as a serious ambition with definitive US leadership?
Yes, I know Obama spoke of this very issue in the early days of his elevation to the Oval Office… and then quickly moved on to commit the US to upgrading its arsenal. This suggestion is not that. (Presumably Harris will choose far less often to enjoy watching in real time the slaying of ‘America’s enemies’ by video feed than Obama did. That may help.)
There’s nothing against space exploration _per se_, but we have plenty to do here of greater importance for everyone while we explore.
I have a few ideas for what kinds of projects she can pursue. Given they share a common end date, I call it ‘Project 2035’:
1. In the ‘60s, Buckminster Fuller and his students envisioned a world-spanning power grid connected by undersea high-voltage cables, enabling efficient sharing of energy no matter the time of day. There was a recent proposal to lay an Australia-Singapore undersea cable; another such cable from Morocco to Britain was recently inaugurated, and one proposal to build a transatlantic cable called NATO-L just came out. Harris should pledge to build a worldwide HVDC grid by 2035.
2. With high-speed rail getting measly but promising funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Harris should commit to a national network for 200-mph high-speed rail, finished by 2035. It would steal passengers from the airline oligopolies, spur new rail electrification projects, and break car dependency for 200-700-mile trips.
3. I don’t think 3 million new homes is enough, considering the supply gap might exist even after 2028. Sweden set a goal of 1 million public housing units after the Second World War and got it done. Singapore pursued similar public housing projects in the first ten years of its independence. Harris should commit to 10 million new public housing units by 2035, complete with a construction jobs program that could help her appeal to young men.
4. Even if the PRO Act gets passed, that still leaves the problem of the intertwining of stock buybacks and forced layoffs, which drives working-class resentment and worsens inequality. The 2020 DNC platform had the idea to stop giving PPP loans to businesses that pursued stock buybacks, while rules for CHIPS Act grants have similar clauses. Harris should ban federal contractors from pursuing stock buybacks and involuntary layoffs, as part of a broader goal to cut the Gini coefficient to the EU’s level (39 to 29) by 2035.
Can they perhaps be translated into compelling, bold themes? Themes that allow Harris to steal the ‘builder’ messaging from Trump? I wonder:
1. A big U.S. energy leadership pitch means a better life for your kids, through freedom from the oil companies and peace with other nations through copper.
2. Transforming our transport system means freedom from the auto or airline industry, as you won’t have to get tired on road trips or plane trips, or the insurance the former requires.
3. Freedom from the volatile housing market is crucial, at a time when corporate landlords are stalking it, causing major price shifts that worsen homelessness.
4. Part of what gives your life its worth is a meaningful job, and Wall Street denying that while goosing up CEO pay should not be what your taxpayer money is used for.
I get the thrust of what you are getting at but going to Mars ? What problem does that solve?
We have a rapidly heating planet that is on a path to destabilize civilization not to mention microplastics in breast milk (and a whole lot of other things).
How about Manhattan projects to get steel and cement creating processes that are carbon free? Cement and steel code burly enough to not turn off the knuckle draggers. There are some good ideas in work already. Let’s get these across the finish line by 2032.
From every interview to date it is clear that our candidate can't process fast enough to answer questions that she knows are coming and she wasted the VP pick. Please solve for that.
It's not necessarily a matter of "processing" : Elaina Plott Calabro has interesting observations about Harris, and her relationship to policy conversations and interviewers. It might be enlightening to read if you haven't already. (Apologies if you have). I would have made this a gift link, but didn't want to cast pearls before grumps.
Thanks. I had read it. The goal is winning elections or else many many people suffer. Her style and her VP choice were crushing blows to those suffering around the world.
Love this strategy. Some big ideas I'd love to see (and fight for), but don't hear discussed let alone enshrined in a party platform or core to a stump speech):
1) End childhood poverty and malnutrition.
2) 90%+ reduction in death from firearms, suicide, and drug overdose.
3) Universal, Unconditional Basic Income (tied to immigration reform?? Citizens less insecure and resentful when they don't worry about starving). Combine with killing a bunch of redundant costs and bureaucracy related to means tested benefits.
4) 90%+ voter participation... plus ranked choice voting, end the electoral college, automatic registration, Elections Day a holiday, and term limits for Congress and the Courts.
5) Solar panels on every roof.
6) All eligible adults have a passport and 100 million Americans travel abroad to a new country.
7) $10k stock portfolio placed in trust for every American newborn; made available after they complete a year of national service (Peace Corp, AmeriCorp, Armed Forces, etc)
8) End the teacher and healthcare shortages.
...I have like 10 more but these are some of my favorites.
I was with you until you dismissed the idea of building a clean energy future as a sort of a narrow special interest appeal. To me, the idea of a country where you can literally breathe free and not have to worry about getting your energy from Middle East tyrants is much more attractive and exciting then spending trillions of dollars to travel to some lifeless rock where we can’t survive without investing additional trillions in replicating and maintaining Earth-like conditions, if that’s even technically feasible at all.
Mars, absolutely not. Elon Musk has said that getting 12 humans to Mars would cost $120 billion. To an environment that is hostile to human life. No water, unless you drill 1 mile deep. Unbreathable air. Deadly cosmic radiation. Changing all that would cost, most likely, trillions. Money needed to stop greenhouse gas emissions and also to adapt to a much warmer world.
Mars leaves me cold. Prizes for the best ideas to clean the ocean are good. I am not against scientific goals, but the dems have a communication problem. The Biden administration did some worthy things — new chip manufacturing! Cancer moonshot! — that are not acknowledged by RW media. Maybe it does have to be as big as outer space to get bipartisan media pickup as anything other than more liberal spending.
Here's something audacious for the POTUS campaign and downballot campaign. 'We need to unfuck the corrupt and unresponsive judiciary we are going to have to live with for the next 30 years- right now it only listens to the fatcats and the whackjobs...with POTUS Trump [or Senator GOPer, or SML McConnell] it will only dig deeper into that'.
Here is an audacious counter to the crap economic memory of everyone who is nostalgic about the 2019-2020 so-called Trump economy, to be used *only* by downballot campaigns [Especially in states where the Senate or House candidate's only hope is beating the spread of POTUS election results through ticket-splitting], not POTUS campaign. ---- If you liked the 2019-2020 economy so much, guess who ran the House and Senate and voted in the Federal budgets then? Not the Party of my Republican opponents, but the Party of my Democratic colleagues. If it was up the Republicans in the minority at the time who were whining from the sidelines, nobody's job or business would have been paycheck-protected, and no renter would have been protected from eviction in COVID.
"She could promise to put a human on Mars by year X, delivering significant ego injury to Elon Musk."
If she promised that one, I hoped she would be kidding. It would not enthuse her female-leaning base, but might, and only just might, cause techno-optimist dudes to consider a second-look.
"She could take whatever kernels of commonsense still occupy RFK, Jr.’s wormholed brain and promote the physical health of all Americans."
---- What about turning this into a quantifiable and vectorable goal like increasing national average lifespan again, and increasing America's rank among nations for average lifespan?
"She can and should promise to complete Joe Biden’s moonshot-for-a-cure cancer-fighting initiative."
What I would advise Democrats to do once the election is over and, I dearly hope, they have won is to develop a rhetorical framework for promoting key policy goals that links them together much as FDR's Four Freedoms concept did--Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want, etc. I would even suggest terming it the new Four Freedoms.
""Freedom" is a compelling concept. Freedom" can be freedom to do something good, or, freedom from some evil. A major role of democratic (small "d") government is to defend and increase freedoms. Freedom has been an effective word in the call to reverse the Dobbs decision and its aftermath. American progress has been built on increasing freedom. Keep reminding everyone who wants to guarantee and expand THEIR freeedoms.
Who is opposed to "freedom"? Not real Americans, etc. etc. Those people are actually "weird.""Weird" is another great, simple and direct word to keep pasting on the foreheads of the MAGA leadership. We need to keep reminding people how "weird" these people are, and how they are also dangerous threats.
PS
Beyonce has already given us a great theme song to promote such a program. It's not something to dismiss as unimportant.
I'd be happy with just Freedom From Republicans.
That would fit the "Freedom from Evil" roster.
That is great for you and me.
But there is enough electorate willing to surge to give Republicans majorities once their worst screw-ups are slightly forgotten that this particular Freedom is insufficient for them for multiple elections in a row.
Too many people have backed themselves into the GOP corner, giving the Party a high floor, or, with a low or medium knowledge base, are reluctant to come to a systematic conclusion that Republicans are systematically and repeatedly a problem for the freedoms they care about the most. Or they simply do not have a hierarchy of freedoms they care about the most. So they drift around on vibes or whatever onesie or twosy is a grabbing their attention and standing outt for them in any given election year, and almost half the time,, its yielding GOP Presidential victories, and more often than that, GOP majorities in one or both Houses of Congress.
Unfortunately, many MAGA people have come to define "freedom" as the right to buy any weapon they wish to, the right to mock whatever group of people--race, ethnicity, gender or political inclination--they dislike, to once again be able to use the "n" word in public, to be from taxes or civic responsibility, and the freedom to impose white Christian values on everyone else whether they like it or not. It is a highly reactionary definition--defensive and defiant and highly uncomfortable with the way the world is changing. It found a home in the Republican Party and found a leader in Trump. We need to redefine "freedom" in a more positive and forward looking way that will in time resonate even with these people. Much the way we have found we can steal "USA, USA" from the right. It will take time but it can be done. It must be done.
MAGAs are also the last people who would convert or be persuaded. They are the last people who you should allow to control your feelings.
If it was only MAGA true believers voting Republican, they would not control any Branch of government. There would just be some outsized conservative Federalist Society with rabbit-holed MAGA and Christian Right outsized influence on the judiciary.
Otherwise, Democratic favoring elections (would not have been happening when they have.
It's the non-participating voters, intermittently participating voters or people who have somehow swung between voting between the different major parties or between major parties and third party in different elections who need that extra degree of clarification about the sharp differences making the Dems a better bet, in the past, present, and future.
I strongly disagree that we should set our sights on Mars. Even apocalyptic conditions on Earth from climate change, nuclear war, or an asteroid would not leave our planet less habitable than Mars. We should instead dedicate maximum scientific and political energy and resources to preventing or at least mitigating threats to life on Earth, which are mostly human-driven.
Interstellar travel is nothing but a fun sci-fi genre... Not a realistic solution to escaping the eventual demise of all life on Earth... We have at least 3 billion years until the Sun dies. Maybe if we figure out our sh*t here on Earth and somehow manage not to kill ourselves off, humans or whatever we evolve into over the next few million years can revisit the mind-boggling physics of becoming space pilgrims.
We should instead hold up billionaires' wasteful, destructive, and delusional pursuit of human colonies in space as yet another reason that they should not be permitted to hoard humanity's wealth.
Agree. Defector ran a great piece on how "colonizing" Mars is a joke. No oxygen, no water, no magnetosphere to block radiation from space. What's the payoff?
Meanwhile, Brian's point about ours being a wealthy society is true, but it would be nice if Harris said, "We create a lot of wealth in this society. Where is it going?" Because we know where it's going--to the already-wealthy. So far the only candidate who's run on that is Bernie. Maybe more people are ready to hear it now.
What happened to treating Trump as kind of a joke? That was supposed to be the power of Walz and the weird stuff. The vibe shift from “what a clown” to Hitler is not great.
Weird and Fascist are both appropriate terms for trump, vance, maga, and what's left of the republican party. If it walks and talks like a duck, it's a duck! At least a duck has the courage to own what it is. Authoritarians and fascists are COWARDS who will never own or acknowledge their behavior.
At this point, the most important thing is GOTV. On messaging, a positive, hopeful message will best help inspire folks to do that. That’s the opposite of what the focus has been most recently. We need to get folks to come out from hiding under their beds to ward off the coming apocalypse, believe their vote matters, and vote, vote, vote.
I wonder how much the polls and media coverage are aimed at driving voters to get out and actually vote. It's a delicate balance - too much fear and people won't want to try. Not enough and they say "it's in the bag." BTW, my prediction - landslide for Harris.
I love your optimism, and may you be right! As to the balancing act, I read this piece today from Robert Kuttner, which I thought offered an interesting perspective: https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-10-25-kamala-trump-f-word/
Thanks for the link, Susan. Very interesting, and I agree with the conclusion about "fascist" versus "bully" and "brute." The word "fascist" is way too remote a concept - and not definitive. I'd rather hear Harris talk about "weird" and "take your freedom away" and "wants to control your life." Plenty of examples of all that. Here's why I think Harris wins big:
1. Women
2. Young people
3. Better GOTV efforts
4. Never Trumpers
5. People just sick of Trump's bull shit.
Of course, millions of Americans will vote for Trump. Why?
1. They're in a cult
2. Low-information voters
3. Oligarch propaganda and payoffs
4. Sold their souls to the Devil years ago.
BTW, I am a completely fair and neutral observer!
“We can feed the hungry, treat the sick, and insure the continued existence of mankind…”
Yet, we do not.
Why are these considered pale ambitions, against flying off to Mars?
Here’s another thing we could do, almost universally popular worldwide: eliminate nuclear weapons. There’s even a checkable process by which we humans could accomplish this in stages. Why shouldn’t the elimination of nuclear weapons be embraced as a serious ambition with definitive US leadership?
Yes, I know Obama spoke of this very issue in the early days of his elevation to the Oval Office… and then quickly moved on to commit the US to upgrading its arsenal. This suggestion is not that. (Presumably Harris will choose far less often to enjoy watching in real time the slaying of ‘America’s enemies’ by video feed than Obama did. That may help.)
There’s nothing against space exploration _per se_, but we have plenty to do here of greater importance for everyone while we explore.
I have a few ideas for what kinds of projects she can pursue. Given they share a common end date, I call it ‘Project 2035’:
1. In the ‘60s, Buckminster Fuller and his students envisioned a world-spanning power grid connected by undersea high-voltage cables, enabling efficient sharing of energy no matter the time of day. There was a recent proposal to lay an Australia-Singapore undersea cable; another such cable from Morocco to Britain was recently inaugurated, and one proposal to build a transatlantic cable called NATO-L just came out. Harris should pledge to build a worldwide HVDC grid by 2035.
2. With high-speed rail getting measly but promising funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Harris should commit to a national network for 200-mph high-speed rail, finished by 2035. It would steal passengers from the airline oligopolies, spur new rail electrification projects, and break car dependency for 200-700-mile trips.
3. I don’t think 3 million new homes is enough, considering the supply gap might exist even after 2028. Sweden set a goal of 1 million public housing units after the Second World War and got it done. Singapore pursued similar public housing projects in the first ten years of its independence. Harris should commit to 10 million new public housing units by 2035, complete with a construction jobs program that could help her appeal to young men.
4. Even if the PRO Act gets passed, that still leaves the problem of the intertwining of stock buybacks and forced layoffs, which drives working-class resentment and worsens inequality. The 2020 DNC platform had the idea to stop giving PPP loans to businesses that pursued stock buybacks, while rules for CHIPS Act grants have similar clauses. Harris should ban federal contractors from pursuing stock buybacks and involuntary layoffs, as part of a broader goal to cut the Gini coefficient to the EU’s level (39 to 29) by 2035.
Can they perhaps be translated into compelling, bold themes? Themes that allow Harris to steal the ‘builder’ messaging from Trump? I wonder:
1. A big U.S. energy leadership pitch means a better life for your kids, through freedom from the oil companies and peace with other nations through copper.
2. Transforming our transport system means freedom from the auto or airline industry, as you won’t have to get tired on road trips or plane trips, or the insurance the former requires.
3. Freedom from the volatile housing market is crucial, at a time when corporate landlords are stalking it, causing major price shifts that worsen homelessness.
4. Part of what gives your life its worth is a meaningful job, and Wall Street denying that while goosing up CEO pay should not be what your taxpayer money is used for.
I get the thrust of what you are getting at but going to Mars ? What problem does that solve?
We have a rapidly heating planet that is on a path to destabilize civilization not to mention microplastics in breast milk (and a whole lot of other things).
How about Manhattan projects to get steel and cement creating processes that are carbon free? Cement and steel code burly enough to not turn off the knuckle draggers. There are some good ideas in work already. Let’s get these across the finish line by 2032.
From every interview to date it is clear that our candidate can't process fast enough to answer questions that she knows are coming and she wasted the VP pick. Please solve for that.
Did you wake up grumpy benny? If you can't say something interesting, why say anything?
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/07/kamala-harris-prosecutor-president/679226/
It's not necessarily a matter of "processing" : Elaina Plott Calabro has interesting observations about Harris, and her relationship to policy conversations and interviewers. It might be enlightening to read if you haven't already. (Apologies if you have). I would have made this a gift link, but didn't want to cast pearls before grumps.
Thanks. I had read it. The goal is winning elections or else many many people suffer. Her style and her VP choice were crushing blows to those suffering around the world.
okay.
Make America middle-class by 2035.
Make America middle-class by 2035.
Love this strategy. Some big ideas I'd love to see (and fight for), but don't hear discussed let alone enshrined in a party platform or core to a stump speech):
1) End childhood poverty and malnutrition.
2) 90%+ reduction in death from firearms, suicide, and drug overdose.
3) Universal, Unconditional Basic Income (tied to immigration reform?? Citizens less insecure and resentful when they don't worry about starving). Combine with killing a bunch of redundant costs and bureaucracy related to means tested benefits.
4) 90%+ voter participation... plus ranked choice voting, end the electoral college, automatic registration, Elections Day a holiday, and term limits for Congress and the Courts.
5) Solar panels on every roof.
6) All eligible adults have a passport and 100 million Americans travel abroad to a new country.
7) $10k stock portfolio placed in trust for every American newborn; made available after they complete a year of national service (Peace Corp, AmeriCorp, Armed Forces, etc)
8) End the teacher and healthcare shortages.
...I have like 10 more but these are some of my favorites.
I was with you until you dismissed the idea of building a clean energy future as a sort of a narrow special interest appeal. To me, the idea of a country where you can literally breathe free and not have to worry about getting your energy from Middle East tyrants is much more attractive and exciting then spending trillions of dollars to travel to some lifeless rock where we can’t survive without investing additional trillions in replicating and maintaining Earth-like conditions, if that’s even technically feasible at all.
Audacious goals, yes.
Mars, absolutely not. Elon Musk has said that getting 12 humans to Mars would cost $120 billion. To an environment that is hostile to human life. No water, unless you drill 1 mile deep. Unbreathable air. Deadly cosmic radiation. Changing all that would cost, most likely, trillions. Money needed to stop greenhouse gas emissions and also to adapt to a much warmer world.
What you propose is insanity.
Mars leaves me cold. Prizes for the best ideas to clean the ocean are good. I am not against scientific goals, but the dems have a communication problem. The Biden administration did some worthy things — new chip manufacturing! Cancer moonshot! — that are not acknowledged by RW media. Maybe it does have to be as big as outer space to get bipartisan media pickup as anything other than more liberal spending.
Here's something audacious for the POTUS campaign and downballot campaign. 'We need to unfuck the corrupt and unresponsive judiciary we are going to have to live with for the next 30 years- right now it only listens to the fatcats and the whackjobs...with POTUS Trump [or Senator GOPer, or SML McConnell] it will only dig deeper into that'.
Here is an audacious counter to the crap economic memory of everyone who is nostalgic about the 2019-2020 so-called Trump economy, to be used *only* by downballot campaigns [Especially in states where the Senate or House candidate's only hope is beating the spread of POTUS election results through ticket-splitting], not POTUS campaign. ---- If you liked the 2019-2020 economy so much, guess who ran the House and Senate and voted in the Federal budgets then? Not the Party of my Republican opponents, but the Party of my Democratic colleagues. If it was up the Republicans in the minority at the time who were whining from the sidelines, nobody's job or business would have been paycheck-protected, and no renter would have been protected from eviction in COVID.
"She could promise to put a human on Mars by year X, delivering significant ego injury to Elon Musk."
If she promised that one, I hoped she would be kidding. It would not enthuse her female-leaning base, but might, and only just might, cause techno-optimist dudes to consider a second-look.
"She could take whatever kernels of commonsense still occupy RFK, Jr.’s wormholed brain and promote the physical health of all Americans."
---- What about turning this into a quantifiable and vectorable goal like increasing national average lifespan again, and increasing America's rank among nations for average lifespan?
"She can and should promise to complete Joe Biden’s moonshot-for-a-cure cancer-fighting initiative."
--Good one. Pairs well with the lifespan.