Democrats should run on "National unity and good [better] jobs"

[andym]

From an opinion piece in the NY Times by Thomas Friedman
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/opinion/trump-2020.html
(Ignore the tabloid title and look for the key ideas inside)

I think the following is a winning message for a general election and a very good summary of how Democrats can craft a strong economic message that appeals to everyone but Republicans who hate the government:


"That doesn’t mean a Democratic candidate should stand for nothing, just keep it simple: Focus on building national unity and good jobs. I say national unity because many Americans are terrified and troubled by how bitterly divided, and therefore paralyzed, the country has become. There is an opening for a unifier.

And I say good jobs because when the wealth of the top 1 percent equals that of the bottom 90 percent, we do have to redivide the pie. I favor raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to subsidize universal pre-K education and to reduce the burden of student loans. Let’s give kids a head start and college grads a fresh start.

....
[But] The winning message is to double down on redividing the pie in ways that give everyone an opportunity for a slice while also growing the pie sustainably. Democrats should focus on how we create sustainable wealth and good jobs, which is the American public-private partnership model: Government enriches the soil and entrepreneurs grow the companies.

It has always been what’s made us rich, and we’ve drifted away from it: investing in quality education and basic scientific research; promulgating the right laws and regulations to incentivize risk-taking and prevent recklessness and monopolies that can cripple free markets; encouraging legal immigration of both high-energy and high-I.Q. foreigners; and building the world’s best enabling infrastructure — ports, roads, bandwidth and basic social safety nets."

[murielm99]

1. We are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary

of the moon landing. We were able to achieve that because we invested in science education and research.

[andym]

2. And NASA being able to land a man on the moon in a decade after Sputnik

is an example of the United States people and government working together to get something amazing done in an efficient manner.