Over the weekend, Paul Ryan’s now deleted tweet about the woman in Lancaster, PA whose extra $1.50 per week will cover her Costco membership got a fair amount of attention (here and here, for example). I know this went pretty far and wide, since my daughter showed me that it was showing up on her social media feeds, which (unlike mine) aren’t all (or even mostly) politics. So “the millenials” know that Ryan is a clueless twit and that his party’s “tax cut” isn’t enough to pay for one night of drinks at a cheap bar.
The logical follow up to this is a few simple, straightforward words about what Democrats will do differently. How does this sound: “Once we have Congress and the White House, we will roll back the Trump tax cuts on the 1% and give that money to the middle class.” I think it sounds pretty good, but I’ll be god damned if a mainstream Democrat can say it without a bunch of mealy-mouthed qualifications.
So, in 2018 and 2020, are we going to run on something people care about – cutting their taxes, giving them more services (including Medicare for all) and making the rich pay for it? Or is it going to be another year of 100 page position papers with 50 different little proposals that nobody can understand?
That’s an honest question, not a rhetorical one. And, if you’ve seen some good Democratic messaging from one of the many good candidates who’ve stepped up for 2018, please tell us about it in the comments.