You've got to read this book.
The basic beliefs of each part can be summarized very briefly. The Republicans are the party of scarcity. They are the party where people believe you get ahead by taking from others, because what ever is good is scarce, and that there is a nasty terrible doom waiting for people who stray from the straight and narrow. Conversely, absent this terrible result, people will run wild in the streets, fornicating, stealing and generally behaving like Republicans in Washington DC do.
The Democratic Party is the party that says the solution to most problems is abundance. If more people can live the good life, they will buy more, which means there will be more reason to invest, which means that there will be more technology - which leads to more things to want.
Whenever people feel that there is an unalterable scarcity, they will be drawn to the Republicans. The key to winning as a Democrat is to convince people that whatever they are worried about as being scarce can be overcome, and that people are basically good and in it together - and hence less discipline and threat will not lead to anarchy.
This is why the late 1960's are a big Republican Meme - because of the turbulence, sexual revolution and changes in society. This is why Republicans can blame Jimmy Carter for Nixon's inflation - because it had to be the Democrat who caused the inflation. Stands to reason - Democrats want more - and inflation is from too much money - right?
The key scarcities in society are position and energy. This is used to create an artificial scarcity of money. In point of fact, there is plenty of money out there for everyone to live well. The size of credit and equity markets is more than large enough to fund another round of technology driven expansion in the US. However, there are too many people who profit from this not happening for it to occur without changes to the economic and legal system.
The key bind that we are in is also simple: if we reprice energy directly, there is a big ugly recession waiting for us. No way around it, America right now relies on very cheap oil. If we cut consumption heavily, then the money flow from the middle east, which we depend on to float our debt - goes away. This is what happened with the stock market crash in 2002 - a few billion dollars of hot money walked off the table.
The solution that everyone wants to get to is a consumer economy in the middle east - that would mean that the middle east would be buying goods - cars, electronics, air conditioners etc - rather than assets. It would also mean that they would have to pump as much oil out of the ground as they could to pay for it. It would also mean they would have to cash in their stock. So the people who are rich, now, want it to happen slowly rather than quickly. And they want someone else - average people - to pay for it.
What do we have to do?
We have to convince Americans that we can beat the energy problem, and that the reason we are dependant on foreign money is because of policies here at home which put too much control in the hands of a few people.
Tough sell? Populism should do the trick - after all, people understand that the elite get a different deal. But it has to be smart populism - aimed at the broad band of the middle class.
Can we do it? Sure we can. The first step is to make sure that you are a one person broadcasting station: getting outraged at special tax breaks and special treatment for the rich. Outraged that you have stock in a 401k plan, but you can't change management or even check up on them. Outraged that tax policies favor people sinking money overseas, rather than in venture capital. Outraged that a dead guy gets a break on estate taxes, and billionaires on their dividends, but the guy who wants to start a company - is out in the cold.