As a person who has been directly involved in branding for the past 30 years, now that we are beyond the midterms and have gained a foothold on one of the levers of power we must perform in order to keep and expand that base.
My humble recommendation to the Democratic party is to move away from the institutional pressure to move to the center and remain true to your base and the tens of millions who support your policies but need to be motivated to vote.
There is a very simple way to do this but it requires Dems to do something they are terrified of, taking a concrete position on issues. The way you do this is to get everyone on the record by the Dems who now control the house to put forth and pass a series of definitive and progressive bills. We all know the Rethugs will not allow any of them to even get to the Senate floor but that is not the point.
If done properly the Dems will be able to create their 2020 platform and their argument to the voters as to why they need to be given control of the Senate and White House while at the same time getting every Republican on the record against the people.
Here is just a partial list of Bills Dems should pass in the house in the first 100 days.
- Expansion of Medicare to cover every American from cradle to grave
- A minimum wage bill at $15 hr and with an automatic cost of living escalator
- Voter “Bill of Rights” that sets national standards on federal elections that protects all voters rights and makes voting very easy to participate in
- Aggressive legislation to address climate change
- Real campaign finance reform that takes money out of politics as much as humanly possible
- A new wave of anti-trust regulations to protect consumers
- True immigration reform that recognizes America’s history of being built by immigrants and creates a real and simple path to citizenship over a max of 5 years as well as protection for those here already
There are many more, feel free to add them in comments. My point is it is time for elected Dems to cut the throw away lip service and vote, on the record!
