Yesterday, Democrats released their “New
Direction for America plan. It seems to be a somewhat disappointing
response to my and others’ call that they do a “Contract With America” type
program. The initiatives are:
- Make health care more affordable
- Lower gas prices and achieve energy independence
- Help working families
- Cut college costs
- Ensure dignified retirement
- Require fiscal responsibility
A lot of it sounds nice, but it would have been better if it had been
presented as more definitive, achievable list of goals/promises. In my
opinion, there isn’t much new here, and it seems to be mostly hand-waving.
That’s disappointing…although some of that disappointment could be
alleviated if the herd of cats…er, Democrats could be encouraged to stay
focused on messages that could be built out of this.
Two other thoughts:
- Do the concepts of “lower gas prices” and “energy independence” seem
in conflict with one another? There is a school of thought, one which
seems to be at least somewhat correct to me, that suggests that one of the
ways to encourage energy independence is to maintain higher fuel prices to
provide an economic incentive to change.
- There’s NOTHING in here about the economy. While these topics are
important and worth discussing…well, has the Clintonian philosophy of
“It’s the economy, stupid” been completely erased?