4210

About to head out for a long drive, but some waking thoughts:

IMO, there’s an opportunity here, in both 2018 and 2020 for the Dems to solidify behind a relatively simple message of “A Better America” with both positive proposals and attacks on the corruption/incompetence of the Trump admin. The slogans could be:

Better Jobs
Better Healthcare
Better Roads

For the three listed items, one or two policy proposals to back those up:

Better Jobs: raise the minimum wage, paid family leave.
Better Healthcare: allow all Americans to buy into Medicare
Better Roads: we will spend $1 Trillion on infrastructure and pay for it with a 2% tax on incomes over $250,000 (spent up front, paid for over ten years)

And then secondary to that, a strong anti-Trump, anti-corruption message.

This is not a perfect wishlist for anyone, but I think it’s an overall program/message/platform that will win, and is also good policy, all things considered.

So, that’s where I’d like to see the Dems go.

4211

Better pay.

4212

If that resonates better than “Better Jobs”, then sure. Or it could just be part of the message under “Better Jobs”.

Completely separate from the framing/messaging issue, one big thing I’d love to have some policy ideas on would be improving jobs (pay, benefits, working conditions, everything) for the working and middle class, in addition to unionization. I don’t have any bright ideas at the moment other than big stuff (“reduce unequal bargaining power”, “reduce corporate power”, “reduce the power of the wealthy to buy politicians”). Are there good job-focused ideas there in addition to unionization?

Edit: Note, I’m talking about “In addition to unions” not “instead of unions”. I support unions as one part of improving opportunity for working/middle class folks but I’d like to see some more ideas also.

4213

Something like the Living Wage Act of 2019. Raise the minimum wage immediately to a level that makes it livable, build in automatic increases in the minimum wage tied to CPI increases, establish a benchmark for CEO and executive pay multiple of the lowest company wage, target enforcement with tax penalties and tax incentives, penalize companies who send labor offshore with tax penalties, etc. Sure companies will find loopholes and ways to abuse it, but at least give them that new challenge, they’ve already thoroughly gamed the current set of corporate and tax regulations.

Tax law should be treated like information security, i.e. it’s an arms race, and tax law has to change quickly to keep up with the armies of people working to undermine it.

4214

How about this?

Warren wants to create an Office of United States Corporations inside the Department of Commerce and require any corporation with revenue over $1 billion — only a few thousand companies, but a large share of overall employment and economic activity — to obtain a federal charter of corporate citizenship.

The charter tells company directors to consider the interests of all relevant stakeholders — shareholders, but also customers, employees, and the communities in which the company operates — when making decisions.

More concretely, United States Corporations would be required to allow their workers to elect 40 percent of the membership of their board of directors.

Warren also tacks on a couple of more modest ideas. One is to limit corporate executives’ ability to sell shares of stock that they receive as pay — requiring that such shares be held for at least five years after they were received, and at least three years after a share buyback. The aim is to disincentivize stock-based compensation in general as well as the use of share buybacks as a tactic for executives to maximize their one pay.

The other proposal is to require corporate political activity to be authorized specifically by both 75 percent of shareholders and 75 percent of board members (many of whom would be worker representatives under the full bill), to ensure that corporate political activity truly represents a consensus among stakeholders, rather than C-suite class solidarity.

Or, hell, what about this?

The problem is that Republicans don’t vote in their own interests. They’d all lose their houses and live in cardboard boxes if it meant they could laugh in liberals’ dumbfounded faces.

4215

Warren is so great 😍😍😍

4216

You know, I was convinced she wasn’t going to run, but now I’m not so sure (she also just released ten years of tax returns.)

4217

Agreed. At present, there’s no Democrat I’d rather have as the nominee in 2020.

4218

As we come out of the primary season in Wisconsin, the first likely voter polls show dead heats. Once again, it’s going to be all about voter commitment in the Badger State. Will Trump motivate the Dems to go to the polls instead of sitting on their hands this time?

4219

Sure they do; their tribal interests just trump (sorry) their financial interests. Which is to say, pwning libs and keeping down the darkies matters more than improving their own lot.

4220

“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” - LBJ.

4221

I have lived a long time in Republican communities. I’d say they think they’re voting they’re own interests, i.e., they’re wallets, even if that view often doesn’t bear scrutiny.

4222

I’d agree with that, Jason. All the ones I know firmly believe that Republicans are the party that represents them (working or middle class) and that the Democrats just want to take their paychecks.

Of course, they also believe that Democrats want to give their paychecks to “welfare queens”, so there’s the latent racism that they all seem to have a blind spot to.

4223

I see that being part of “keeping down the darkies”, so I stand by my prior characterisation.

4224

Yeah, but it’s kinda like “I’m going to vote Republican because they’re going to protect my economic interests versus the Democrats, who want to steal from me to give to those undeserving and lazy blacks/immigrants/whatever”. It’s not so much keeping down the darkies, it’s more like “the darkies are down because they don’t work hard like I do so why should I suffer?”.

How on earth they think that the Republicans represent their economic interests continues to baffle me decades after I initially started trying to wrap my head around it.

4225

I can kind of understand the appeal of the GOP if you are white and either have money or run a business. You don’t need to be rich but you think you will be.

I can’t figure out why poor white blue collar workers would give a damn about the GOP.

4226

Those same people often are trying to get on disability and don’t see the irony. Welfare queens indeed.

4227

There is a general misconception among most workers that they pay for disability and unemployment. Therefore they have a right to them.

4228

I attended a brief birthday dinner at a neighbors house to be friendly and general he’s nice guy. I am pretty sure they are all hardcore Republicans, probably Trump supporters, all on Medicare and Medicaid. The birthday man is really excited about finally getting lined up to replace his knee even. He’s probably in his… late fifties. A single guy at working age, if it were up to his party, he wouldn’t have any of that stuff. He also works under the table but has been known to complain about immigrants not contributing and draining our system.

I don’t get that mentality at all. Unlike where others live, Republicans and Trump supporters are not unicorns here. They actually out number everyone else in this county.

4229

@Nesrie, I honestly think it’s just this, from this quote above. Hypocrisy at its finest.