History Learner
Well-known member
So we've had a spate of threads that overall revolve around political policy recently, which has spurred me to want to create a general catch all thread with this topic in mind; it'd be a lot easier than one thread per every policy paper, idea, or such lol. Ideally, I would like to see this thread used to post policy white papers/books, suggestions/news articles related to policy ideas and, most of all, good debate and advocacy for policy prescriptions. Some example topics could be:
Ultimately, however, the main focus should always be on policy. With all that said, I hope we all enjoy this thread and perhaps learn a thing or two.
- Healthcare (Universal Healthcare or reforms to the current system?)
- Foreign Policy (Global strategy for the United States, military funding, trade policy)
- Welfare Reform/Expansion (Negative Income Tax, Social Security reform?)
- Compensation, particularly things like the minimum wage and benefits
- Political Reform (More Supreme Court Justices? Fewer? How about Citizens United?)
That, at least, is the implication of a new report from the Pew Research Center. According to its findings, the Democrats are divided by cultural issues such as critical race theory — look at how many of them flocked to Glenn Youngkin in Virginia — while the GOP are split over economic questions. Indeed, it’s all too easy to forget that an important minority of Democratic voters is patriotic, worried about cancel culture, and wants border control and strong policing. Likewise, a significant bloc of Republican voters is sceptical of banks and large corporations and wants them to pay higher taxes.
These observations echo the analyses of David Shor, Michael Lind, Lee Drutman and others: that the median voter leans Left on the economy and Right on culture. The serious challenge for both parties, then, is whether they can resist influential factions in their respective parties: for the Democrats, that’s the AOC-Elizabeth Warren progressive caucus; for the Republicans, the Paul Ryan-Mitch McConnell corporate tax-cut wing.
Ultimately, however, the main focus should always be on policy. With all that said, I hope we all enjoy this thread and perhaps learn a thing or two.
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