A Better Deal for All Americans

While it is still very hard to fathom that Mr. Trump, (given his first term track record that saw hundreds of thousands die from his mismanagement of the Coronavirus, his tanking of the economy, his attack on Democracy on January 6, 2021 and his Supreme Court picks eroding women’s health care rights) achieved both a popular and electoral vote victory last week, one area that may have merit in criticizing the Harris/Walz Campaign was its lack of a more ambitious public policy vision for the middle and working class that they could get around and enthusiastically rally behind it.

Now, please remember that while Donald Trump is still, after eight years, working on the concepts of a health care plan to replace Obamacare/The Affordable Care Act, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz did present a New Way Forward Agenda for an Opportunity Economy Program that built on the program successes of the Biden/Harris Agenda that included measures to provide assistance for home buyers, aiding start up businesses, extending the prescription drug benefit to non-seniors, increasing the Earned Income and Child Tax Credits expanding Medicare to include home-care, going after plutocrats engaged in price gouging, and doubling of apprenticeships for blue and green collar workers.

This was way more of an agenda to lift working and middle class workers up than Mr. Trump, where one of his supporters responding to an earlier article, thought his working class agenda included measures like drilling for more oil and natural gas, increasing defense spending, more tax cuts for workers, upholding the Second Amendment, and ending critical race theory.

Sure.

Never mind that American Energy production in all sectors (clean or otherwise) is at an all time high during the Biden/Harris years.

The American People also saw how much the rich received in tax cuts compared to the crumps passed on to them in the last Trump tax cut.

Oh and ending critical race theory in schools where it is not taking place in the first place and upholding the Second Amendment where no credible person is talking about repealing it is really going to help working class people put food on the table and help pay for the kids new sneakers.

Some working class agenda. A program based on disinformation and lies.

How surprising coming from the MAGA Universe.

However, the Harris/Walz ticket may have erred by not putting forth a more ambitious and exciting working and middle-class agenda for the American People.

Perhaps an approach that would have worked would have been repeatedly telling the people across the country during the campaign “This is what we did during the first four years that will help the country and nation. We recognize that many of you are still hurting from the pandemic and still need help. Our work is not finished and what we want to do is take the parts of the Build Back Better Plan that we did not pass during the first four years and with your vote for us and more Democrats in Congress, we will work day and night to pass the rest of that program and make A Better Deal for All Americans.”

To be fair, President Biden and Vice President Harris did give variations of those comments to the American People for the last two years.

Not enough people paid attention or listened.

That said, what could Harris and Walz have included, or articulated better, in that “Better Deal for All Americans Plan” along with the Opportunity Economy Agenda?

• Universal Pre-K
• Universal Full Day Kindergarten.
• Free Community College.
• Forgiveness of Student Loan Debt for People who went to a trade school for a blue or green collar school.
• Increasing green and blue collar job opportunities in emerging sustainability industries.
• A Living Wage for All Americans.
• Paid family and medical leave.
• Expand Medicare to include dental, hearing, and vision care. Gradually expand Medicare to cover everyone.
• Further financial assistance on the health care markets.
• Pay for all of this by raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy and large corporations.

While Democrats need to also figure out a better way to counter MAGA disinformation that the people, despite the Trump track record, believe, this “Better Deal for All Americans” Plan could be a starting point for Democrats from local to state to federal offices to build on, along with commitments to public safety, supporting law enforcement and secure borders, and offer to working and middle class constituents that feel the Democratic Party has abandoned them.

Just food for thought as Democrats, both Progressives and Pragmatic Progressives, start to rebuild following the elections.

Remember people thought the world was over when George W. Bush won re-election in 2004. The Democrats took Congress in 2006 and Barack Obama became President two years later.

People thought the world was over when Donald Trump eked out an Electoral College victory in 2016. Democrats took the House in 2018 and the Senate in 2020 along with Joe Biden’s Presidential win.

The world will not end and Democrats will come back.

Progressives and Democrats gave the people The Square Deal, The New Deal, The Fair Deal, The Great Society, Budget Surpluses and Children’s Health Insurance, Obamacare, and, yes, Bidenomics.

Those are achievements to build on and it will not be hard for the party whose members are actually working to improve the lives for all Americans.