The (hypothetical) Democratic "Contract With Americans" - What policy positions would you like to see on it?

[JohnT]

In the “New 2027 Congress” thread, I wrote the following:

@JohnT

Dems should do what Newt Gingrich did in 1994: Get a list of 10 liberal/progressive policy positions which poll at 60% or better, call it the Contract With Americans, and pass bills, daring the President to veto.

For those of you who don’t remember (or weren’t politically active at the time), Newt Gingrich came up with the Contract With America which outlined 10 conservative policy positions (which polled at 60% or higher) prior to the 1994 election. Newt used this Contract to whip up excitement among conservatives, and it was hugely successful:

1. It helped propel the GOP to gaining control of the House for the first time in 40 years.
2. It gave the GOP a policy agenda which they could focus on, allowing them to pass bills and daring Bill Clinton to veto them.

(One of the policy positions was “ending welfare as we know it”, which led to the 1995/1996 gov’t shutdowns. While BC won the political battle, in 1996 Bill Clinton accepted major changes to the federal role in welfare (instead giving “block grants” to the various states. Note this was all from memory and, if I got a detail wrong, let’s not distract ourselves, k?))

OK, it’s my contention that the Dems need something like this, and soon. The election last week was not a validation of Democratic policies or vision, but a repudiation of Trumpism and GOP apathy. This puts the Dems in a precarious position where they know the American people want something, but that “something” is not even defined.

That’s where this thread comes in. We are going to list what we think should be the Dems policy positions in this hypothetical document.

I’ll tabulate the responses and, in a week or two (depending on how active this one is), we’ll have a list of the top-10 Contract With Americans policies.

To this point, and to make life easier for yours truly, I would like your answers to be simple 2-4 word ideas, numbered 1, 2, 3, etc, with Noun Verb, ala the following:

1. Climate Change
2. Wealth Inequality
3. AI Regulation
4. Medicare Expansion
5. Iran War Ending

etc…

Feel free to comment about these under your list, but please keep the list itself clean like the above. If your list isn’t formatted correctly, as compiler, I have the right to just ignore it.

(Don’t worry if the items on your wish list has 60% approval, I’m not asking you to go THAT far in researching this!)

Lastly, if you could see what others are saying, please copy their wording as well if you think that needs to be on the list. “AI Regulation” and “AI Control” say the same thing, so if you see that people are putting “AI Regulation”, just put the same thing too.

Lastly, lastly: I don’t have as much time for social media stuff as I used to, so please don’t get upset if I don’t answer your questions ASAP.

Ready? My list in the next message…

[JohnT]

1. Medicare Expansion
2. Affordability
3. AI Regulation
4. Ukraine Support
5. Corruption Investigations
6. Iran War Ending
7. ACA Tax Credits Renewed
8. Trump Tariff’s Ended

[DrDeth]

1. Higher Minimum Wages
2. Immigration Reform
3. Higher taxes on the Rich

1. Higher Minimum wage

Most Americans support a $15 federal minimum wage

About six-in-ten U.S. adults (62%) say they favor raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, including 40% who strongly back the idea.

2. Immigration Reform-

Gallup.com – 10 Jul 07

Immigration
In your view, should immigration be kept at its present level, increased or decreased? On the whole, do you think immigration is a good thing or a bad thing for this country today?

Please tell me whether you strongly favor, favor, oppose or strongly oppose each of the following proposals. Allowing immigrants living in the U.S. illegally the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time

The table presents data collected from June 2016 through June 2026, asking whether respondents favor or oppose allowing immigrants living in the United States illegally the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time.

That is hard to read, but 42% Strongly favor, and 33% favor.

3. Higher taxes on the rich-

Pew Research Center – 19 Mar 25

Most Americans continue to favor raising taxes on corporations, higher-income…
Democrats are overwhelmingly supportive of raising taxes on these groups, while Republicans are more divided.

With Congress considering legislation that would extend the tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration, a majority of Americans continue to say taxes should be increased, not decreased, for large businesses and corporations. They also say this for household income over $400,000 a year… More than six-in-ten U.S. adults (63%) say tax rates on large businesses and corporations should be raised. This includes 34% who say they should be raised a lot.

Posted from the other thread, see that thread for the exact links, please.

[JohnT]

Please see the instructions, thank you.

Remember:

Numbered list first, commentary after the list. Thanks!

[Hari_Seldon]

1. Medicare expansion
2. End war
3. Tax the rich
4. investigate corruption

I could more but these seem like the biggies.The average American doesn’t give two hoots about climate change and doesn’t understand enough about SCOTUS to have an opinion.

[PhillyGuy]

1. Higher Minimum Wage
2. More Legal Immigration
3. Support for Ukraine
4. Universal Health Insurance
5. Incentivize Clean Energy
6. Make union organizing easier
7. Higher taxes on the rich
8. Arms sales to Taiwan
9. Ban congressional stock trading
10. End Trump tariffs, strengthen war powers act, and generally roll back imperial presidency

[Chronos]

While I certainly agree that ending the Iran War and the tariffs are things that need to be done, I don’t agree that those should be part of the “Contract”. That’s just more of “We’re not Trump”. The whole point of the Contract is that we need more than that: We need to say what we are.

[Leaper]

Yeah, I kinda think this thread will have a lot of lists filled with the writer’s personal priorities and bugbears, not exclusively the 60%+ national approval Gingrich had.

Heck, even then, such a list would have items like “lower prices without deflation” and “free puppies.”

[JohnT]

If contributors want to research polling on their topics, more power to them. But it is not a requirement.

Otoh, enough responses and the “free puppies”-esque responses will not make the top-10.

… or so I hope.

[PhillyGuy]

It’s interesting to compare our lists with the actual Contract with America:

Per Wikipedia

On the first day of their majority in the House, the Republicans promised to bring up for vote, eight major reforms:^[5][6]

1. Require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress;
2. Select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
3. Cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
4. Limit the terms of all committee chairs;
5. Ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
6. Require committee meetings to be open to the public;
7. Require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
8. Guarantee an honest accounting of the federal budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

Looking at this list, I am not sure what to make about the claim that Gingrich looked for issues with 60 percent support. While the above may poll well, they are mostly ideas that few Americans would have heard of before being asked by the pollster.

In putting together my list, I did not put in anything I know polls poorly, but I did not check polling. If the Democrats get a trifecta in 2028 and can actually enact policies that positively impact lots of American lives, it will not matter if it polled 45 percent in 2026. And if the implementation is bad, as is almost guaranteed with something as radical, and as hard to do without temporary job dislocations, as single payer health care, it won’t matter that it polled well.

[JohnT]

@PhillyGuy

Looking at this list, I am not sure what to make about the claim that Gingrich looked for issues with 60 percent support.

First of all, that’s not the Contract. That’s just the things they promised to pass on the first day. You can find the actual 10 items in the link below.

Claim is from the Heritage Foundation, as well as my memory (I was quite the Young Republican back in those days):

The Contract with America: Implementing New Ideas in the U.S. | The Heritage Foundation

The Contract with America: Implementing New Ideas in the U.S. | The Heritage...

[DrDeth]

@Leaper

Yeah, I kinda think this thread will have a lot of lists filled with the writer’s personal priorities and bugbears, not exclusively the 60%+ national approval Gingrich had.

I tried to give three which had at least 60%+ approval.

[JohnT]

Here’s a PDF link to the actual 10 items:

https://share.google/SeUtamEfQFq7YVPQO

[PhillyGuy]

@DrDeth

I tried to give three which had at least 60%+ approval.

One thing about the 60 percent: It depends on how you word the question. If you plainly ask whether people want more immigration, that will not get 60 percent. But if you say that it is for legal immigration tied to categories of work where there is a worker shortage, support goes way up. And that’s what a comprehensive immigration reform bill should specify.

What about amnesty? Polls poorly. Pathway to legal citizenship? Polls much better.

Support for welcoming vetted and preauthorized newcomers will also go up if there is less worry that immigrants will drive wages down (a mistaken belief, but you have to listen to voters). That’s part of why I made a higher minimum wage my number one item, and also included making union organizing easier.

[JohnT]

Again, don’t worry about the 60%. Just put what you want on this hypothetical agenda.

[Little_Nemo]

Here’s my ten

1. Voting rights
2. Have the rich pay a fair share of taxes
3. Expand health care coverage
4. Abolish ICE
5. Make it illegal for a President to impose tariffs without Congressional approval
6. Hold government officials who commit crimes accountable to the law
7. Climate change
8. End the war in Iran
9. Support Ukraine
10. AI regulation

[DrDeth]

@Little_Nemo

1. Voting rights

Good one!

https://apnews.com/article/poll-america-250-voting-rights-threats-16e638192ab65ed2676e8a96283c69a1

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans believe civil liberties like the right to vote are under threat, according to a new AP-NORC poll, while also continuing to agree that the rights expressed in the nation’s founding documents are still core to American identity.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans across demographics believe the right to vote, the right to free speech and freedom of religion are integral to the country. But they were more divided on the importance of the right to bear arms, and few — about one-third or less — saw those rights as safe from threats.

[Little_Nemo]

I feel we should have a law (preferably a Constitutional Amendment) outlining some basic voting rights.

1. No law can prohibit or restrict voting on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, language, ancestry, previous nationality, financial status, property ownership, place of residence, or previous incarceration.
2. Any removal of an individual’s right to vote must be done in accord with full due process.
3. All votes should be counted equally.
4. All votes should be counted individually. Votes should not be “grouped” with a majority of votes within the group determining all of the votes.
5. Any law which might limit voting rights must be subject to a strict scrutiny test.

[pkbites]

Everything I’ve read from every state that turned blue is the first priority has to do with attacking gun rights.

Meet the new Democrats, same as the old Democrats.

[Leaper]

I find that hard to believe. The first?