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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Well, we've effective had two years of effectively legislating in the last 16, during which we got major bills through that include healthcare, minimum wage, and CFPB. If we can build a majority, there is more, but those have some impact.

The bills passed during those two years were good and important, but did not make much of a difference to the issue I'm talking about. I understand why Dodd-Frank (e.g.) was a priority, but it's hard to explain to voters why it should matter to them, and that's a problem. Democrats have lots of priorities, and the windows to change things are not big. It's easy to imagine getting another window and using it to accomplish good and important things which nevertheless do not change the economic outlook for many people. Free college doesn't do much for people who are already in the workforce.

The hardest two areas to deal with are the demise of unions, who to some extent helped bring it on themselves by failing to support things like trade agreements that support unionization abroad or coordinated Mexican unionization drives when NAFTA was adopted, and automation. The unions in particular need more focus at the state as well as federal level.

I guess I am skeptical that Democrats will really do much to improve things for unions, because I haven't seen it. There are too many pro-business Democrats who don't want to upset corporate interests who want to stick it to unions. eta: I really do think strong unions are good for the country and the middle class, and I wish that Democrats would do more here.

The other really tough area is encouraging the growth of tech industries outside SV and Boston. One of the key issues here is resistance: building strong university tech communities is key, and a lot of red states aren't willing to support that.

Everyone likes tech jobs, but there are only going to be so many of them. Not sure it is an answer to what ails much of the country.