The Concrete Plans I Mentioned (Part 1)

The progressive-coded part

In my last post, I put together the beginnings of a basic policy platform that the Democratic Party could theoretically adopt, based on what Americans think are the biggest problems facing society, and what they think the government needs to prioritize. My theory here is that if the Democrats adopted that platform or something akin to it, along with appropriate messaging (in the right information venues!), it would serve as a rallying point to unify the progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic Party. But along with the policy goals that the platform outlines, the Democrats need a plan with which to achieve all of them. That’s basically what this post, along with Part 2, is going to try and lay out. To get the obligatory disclaimer out of the way—everything that I propose will be based on my own knowledge of all these issues, but I don’t claim to be an expert on any of them. Because of this, there’s always a chance that I’ll get some things wrong or overlook some nuances that would change the overall picture.

A Strong Economy

I think it’s a near certainty that the economy will be wrecked by the time Trump’s term ends. Stock markets have been going down considerably because of uncertainty around his tariffs, and prices for a lot of goods will likely go up for the same reason. The economy—and cost of living—is what people care about above anything else, and Americans’ approval of Trump is starting to fall primarily because of how he’s “handling” the economy. Because of this, Democrats need to attack Trump as hard and relentlessly as they can on this issue—to hell with the high road!—and they need to present a plan for how they can improve the economy, keep inflation under control, and—most importantly—make the cost of living affordable for as many Americans as possible.

• Firstly, Democrats need to undo Trump’s tariffs, as well as any other damaging isolationist economic policies that he puts into place during his term. At most, they should be open to narrow, specifically targeted tariffs against Russia and China, the US’s primary antagonists in the geopolitical sphere. Other than that, free trade between the US and other countries should be the name of the game.

• Secondly, Democrats need to embrace abundance as their central economic tenet, especially in relation to essential goods and services—and especially-especially in relation to housing, since rents make up a significant portion of the cost of living. They should demonstrate a commitment to electing state-level politicians who have YIMBY reforms as a core part of their agenda; this should also be part of a wider effort to reform the regulatory system, with the goal of reducing or eliminating supply constraints more generally. This doesn’t mean uncritically embracing supply-side Reaganomics, however; all of this should be coupled with reforming the welfare system so that money circulates as evenly as possible across the economy—in other words, so that the benefits of economic growth are shared amongst all Americans rather than funneled up to the already-wealthy. This two-pronged approach, at least in theory, should both lower the cost of living and ensure that most normal Americans are better able to make ends meet.

  (This, along with all the other things I propose, should also come with reforms to the tax system, but we’ll go more deeply into that when I talk about balancing the budget in Part 2.)

• Finally, Democrats should demonstrate a commitment to protecting the independence of the Federal Reserve. As things stand right now, Trump seems committed to major tax cuts for the rich while largely maintaining previous levels of spending; this fiscal irresponsibility will mean that the budget deficit, inflation, and the national debt will all increase (bigly). While Democrats could run on fiscal austerity—raising taxes and cutting spending—to reduce and stabilize those things, neither policy is particularly popular with Americans. Protecting the Fed, therefore, should be the primary focus, and Dems should emphasize the Fed’s role as a counterbalance against reckless fiscal policy.

Campaign Finance Reform

I don’t have much to say here, because frankly, campaign finance reform is one of those things that nobody’s really talking about anymore. That doesn’t make it any less important, however. Since Americans think it should be a big priority for the government, Democrats will be in a prime position to get people talking about it—and showing that they have a concrete plan for it—once Republicans lose their government trifecta.

• At the federal level, the immediate thing Democrats should do is commit to supporting politicians at the state level who have campaign finance reform as a major plank in their platform. Since these would be state-level reforms, federal Democrats shouldn’t fret about the specific policy details—reducing the influence of money in politics is what matters, and the more campaign finance reform is passed at the state level—whether as law or as constitutional amendments—the easier it will be to get it passed at the federal level as well.

• When Democrats gain control over the executive branch, they should also commit to appointing Supreme Court judges favorable to undoing decisions such as Citizens United. They shouldn’t be afraid to pack the Court, either—after everything Republicans have done in recent years, Democrats need to grow a spine and do everything in their power (within the bounds of the Constitution, of course) to undo the damage and move the country forward.

• Finally, federal-level Democrats should come to a consensus on what campaign finance reform would look like on that level, and push that through as best as they can. Personally, I would prefer campaigns to primarily be publicly funded. Individuals would still be able to donate to campaigns, but the allowable amount per month would be capped at around the national median income at most; this way, people would still be able to support campaigns they favor without being drowned out by the ultra-rich. Artificial entities such as corporations would not be allowed to make political donations at all. Having said all of that though, it doesn’t really matter what that campaign finance reform looks like; if the influence of money in politics is reduced or eliminated, that’s all that matters.

Affordable Healthcare

When I first became interested in politics in 2016, I got severe third-degree berns (spelling intended), and it left a mark on me right up until today. Although my support for Bernie Sanders is not as unconditional as it was, universal healthcare is one of the bigger aspects of his platform and ideology that I still support even after all this time. That said, there should be a practical plan for this, just as there should be a practical plan for everything else.

• Just like in the economy section, Democrats need to reform the regulatory regime so that healthcare-related goods and services can be made more abundant. At the state level, zoning laws need to be loosened and simplified so that it’s easier to build essential healthcare infrastructure—such as hospitals, doctor’s offices, pharmacies, and medical schools—in high-demand areas.

• The other thing is that Democrats need to start pushing for the expansion of Medicare’s age of eligibility and Medicaid’s income level of eligibility, respectively, with the goal of eventually providing universal coverage from both; I’m open to eventually combining the two into a single program, but this doesn’t have to be the case. I personally think this is the most realistic way of reaching universal healthcare, since the infrastructure for both programs already exists; a sufficient expansion of eligibility requirements is really all Democrats would need to do. When talking about this, Democrats need to put a strong emphasis on the need for the US to join all the other developed countries in providing universal healthcare—and to provide a competitive system that features high-quality care at low out-of-pocket costs.

Whew, okay, Part 1 is done. I was originally going to go over everything in one post, but I could feel my own eyes starting to glaze over after a while, so I can only imagine what that would’ve done to potential readers. It just made sense more generally, too—this post is mostly talking about policies that are associated with the progressive wing of the Democratic party, so it’s appropriate that Part 2 is focused on moderate-coded ideas. While I can’t guarantee anything, I’ll try to put that out by next week! At the very least, this has been a useful brain exercise for me, so I hope you took something out of it as well. Stay safe out there!