As for how to implement them, step one would be having any of these things as part of the party platform. You can't blame Republicans for blocking policies that Democratic leaders either explicitly do not run on or openly oppose.

Medicare for All, Green New Deal, repeal of 2017 Trump Tax Cuts, any conditions on arms shipments to Israel, Supreme Court reform, end to qualified immunity for police, legal accountability for Trump (or the Bush administration, or the corporate leaders who gave us the 2008 financial crisis)...

It looks really dumb in a vacuum. But if you put about 1000 panels before these, with a constructive idea being rejected in each one, this outcome becomes inevitable.

This is why voters think the whole system is rotten, and are willing to take a chance on putting a nut like RFK Jr. in charge of food safety. This is the status quo. Companies put profits over people, and our "well-qualified" regulators largely let them do it.

I agree about the danger of distraction, but the Democratic party still has to win hearts and change minds. It's impossible to do that if you start from the assumption that someone who doesn't see things your way is simply misinformed or being duped. We all need to get out of that mindset.

Voters want outcomes. They want solutions to their kitchen table problems. An arbitrary notion of "good governance" means very little if people don't see improvement in their daily lives. They didn't under the Biden admin, and Harris didn't articulate what she would fundamentally do differently.

Relatedly, please read this from @joshtpm.bsky.social

talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-m...

This is a profound illustration of the problem...

What party do you vote for to reject this untenable status quo?

Republicans who flout every norm?

Democrats who have treated the past decade like business as usual?

Third parties who can't win but could tip the vote in some bad way?

I don't think "government info" can shape people's reality that way. The Biden administration has put out tons of data to support the idea that this is the best economy we've had in a generation, but almost no one actually feels that way.

I think Democrats get tarred for supporting fringe positions because they don't have clear stances on major issues. Are they for immigration or a closed border? Universal healthcare or private insurance? War or peace in Gaza? More or less police accountability? Try to please everyone, be for both!

Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" (1886) is a particularly insightful read these days.

Implicit is the notion that the economy is actually fantastic and that voters who feel otherwise are stubbornly not giving Biden the credit he's due. We must stop looking for the moral victory in rosy economic statistics and start addressing an economy that is indeed broken in many ways.

Nothing's wrong with it, I'm merely saying that people are justified in feeling that they earned their pay increases, while inflation, as a systemic problem, is within the purview of the government.

It's not an unreasonable assessment. High inflation means everyone paid more at the supermarket. Higher average wages doesn't mean everyone got a raise. Those who did see a significant wage increase generally either negotiated it with their employer or took a higher paying job elsewhere.

Honest question here, but what makes Sherrod Brown a "populist hero?" I don't live in Ohio, but every time I see him on cable news, it's the same "dignity of work" stuff, which doesn't feel vastly different from typical democratic messaging.