The Case for a Radically Simple Democratic Agenda

Support for an expansive “Project 2029” rests on a flawed theory of how to win back workers. Democrats instead should try a straightforward, muscular plan for change.

Among the most ubiquitous refrains in progressive politics in the long Trump era is some variant of the expression, “Democrats are going to have a huge mess to clean up.” It was sounded heavily during Covid—Joe Biden predicated his campaign on ending the chaos and safely reopening the economy—and has become routine again in the wake of the DOGE experiment, Trump’s politicization of multiple government departments and agencies, other abuses of executive power, and now, the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

This lament naturally doubles as a call to action. For many on the left, the antidote to Trump’s second-term legacy must be nothing less than a full ideological counterpoint to Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s infamous organizing document for Trump 2.0. What Democrats need, activists and policy wonks wager, is a “Project 2029” that reverses everything Trump and the Republican Congress have pushed through and advances, in turn, the bold reforms merely glimpsed in the Biden and Obama presidencies. They appear to be getting their wish: last month, the nascent organization with just this mission announced its executive director, joining a plethora of groups jockeying to shape the Democratic platform and general election strategy well before the next presidential nominee has been determined.

Like my compatriots, I believe Democrats must develop clear policies that build economic democracy and strengthen existing laws meant to protect ordinary citizens from fraud and exploitation. Working families are not interested in piecemeal measures that do vanishingly little to increase their economic security and the prosperity of their communities, nor are they supportive of new wars for regime change overseas. I agree wholeheartedly, too, that the consequences of the cronyism this administration has indulged will not simply disappear with a changing of the guard. There will undoubtedly be many instances in which the next Democratic administration will have to restore administrative integrity, root out regulatory capture, and otherwise clean house.

I’m not so confident, however, in the idea that Democrats, proverbial red marker in hand, must tally up every Trump offense and respond in-kind through an all-encompassing concept like Project 2029. Project 2029 is premised, in part, on reengaging voters who think Democrats have been timid about confronting the nation’s challenges. Democrats insist they want to flip red districts. Yet, while it may energize the party’s educated base, there are reasons to think Project 2029 is not suited to solving Democrats’ regional woes—that it will inevitably carry strong “culture war” connotations that do nothing to attenuate the pattern of fruitless political combat that has defined the better part of this century, in which no epochal majority coalition has been formed. Indeed, neither Project 2029 nor any of its equivalents is likely to fix the party’s image with working-class voters who associate Democrats with professional-class elitism and “woke” dogma.

The average voter, furthermore, just isn’t that interested in a preponderance of white papers and policy briefs generated by the center-left’s advocacy networks. This, however, isn’t because voters are ignorant or incapable of thinking through how public policy affects their life chances. It is because these documents have proliferated since the Great Recession without a commensurate impact on the lives of ordinary Americans. Working-class voters, accordingly, are skeptical the Democrats’ would-be “brain trusts” can actually make a difference when given power. They aren’t wrong: when all was said and done, the last batch of “landmark” legislation congressional Democrats passed barely altered the fundamental dynamics eroding the American dream, despite a few promising steps by the Biden administration to bolster unions, consumer protection, fair competition, domestic supply chains, and renewable energy.

To be clear, some of the ideas that could constitute Project 2029 are laudable and worth pursuing. Progressives committed to rebuilding shared prosperity and worker power are right to want to figure out how to do things better the next time around after the disjointed reforms and disheartening inefficiencies of the Biden years. The impetus to increase pressure on Democrats to show some spine, name the forces that have gamed the system, and stand up for Congress’s constitutional rights and duties correctly recognizes that Democrats have too often vacillated when given the chance to highlight the shallowness of Trump’s “populism.” To be effective, the core message in 2028 must be frank about the threats to the American dream and unflinching about what is needed to save it—not a banal promise to make life a little more affordable.

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Still, if Democrats are intent on truly reforming their party, shaking up the party system, and competing boldly in forbidding regions, they should try an experiment. Instead of drawing up a panoply of progressive wish lists dubbed Project 2029, Democrats should ask themselves: can they fit the heart of their agenda on a one-page memo without resorting to vague platitudes? Can they home in on a handful of pledges that would resonate from greater Boston to St. Louis to South Texas? Could they, in the case of projects that are for entirely appropriate reasons tailored to specific economic sectors or demographics, engender a spirit of reciprocity and mutual goodwill in the American people that depolarizes society? In short, can they sow belief that government can be a real instrument of economic progress and that revitalized communities will beget more?

I believe such questions are worth asking of a party that imagines it aspires to milestones but is so often mired in disappointment, evasion, and acrimony. Knowing, too, that Democrats are presently benefiting more from discontent with Trump’s GOP rather than an unequivocal surge in voter trust, it is important that the party find the discipline to enunciate how they will make up for the failures and capitulations of the past. While no platform is going to convert the most hardened Trump supporters, Democrats ought to consider an agenda along these lines:

1. Close the Wealth and Pay Gap. America, through the power of unions, public investment, and progressive taxation, built an unprecedented middle class after World War II, with CEOs earning no more than twenty-one times the average worker. Today’s gulf is unsustainable, unpatriotic, and threatens the very foundations of American dynamism and community wealth. Public policy must therefore prioritize inclusive growth that improves the living standards of each new generation as well as laws that effectively tame the political power of the wealthiest.

2. Build 20 Million Middle-Class Homes by 2035. America has a shortage of four to seven million housing units, depending on the estimate; however, some reports suggest that up to 20 million need to be built as the rest of Gen Z enters the workforce and parts of rural America continue to depopulate. At the same time, America has a dramatically falling birthrate. If the country’s young people are to build a future, put down roots, and invest in their communities, we need a resurgence in middle-class home ownership that encourages family formation.

3. Fix the Safety Net for a Changing Workforce. Approximately 40 percent of America’s 170 million workers are freelancers or independent contractors, and this share is expected to rise steadily in the next decade. As traditional workplace benefits become obsolete, and as AI threatens to eliminate job opportunities across multiple industries, social insurance must be restructured and expanded to prevent hardships arising from illness, family emergencies, technological disruption, or economic downturns.

4. Reform the Entire Health Care System. Soaring health care costs and medical debt are destroying the purchasing power of American households. American life expectancy is also declining. The system needs to be overhauled to control costs, prioritize preventative care, and increase R&D that yields medicines that actually cure major and costly diseases.

5. Crack Down on Conflicts of Interest. Too many elected officials and government employees have financial motives and ties to lobbyists that compromise the integrity of their respective offices and their duty to serve the public free of undue influence. The next Democratic administration should pledge to zealously curb, without partisan favor, conflicts of interest, self-dealing, insider trading, and other sources of corruption that undermine the rule of law and social trust.

6. Prevent Monopolists from Controlling the Power to Invest. The single greatest impediment to rebuilding the middle class is the concentration of wealth and ownership, which effectively dictates where and when livelihoods are created (or destroyed). Antitrust laws, in conjunction with fiscal and place-based industrial policies, must be harnessed efficiently to ensure that productive enterprises and remunerative jobs are fostered in every corner of the nation, as leaders from Jefferson and Madison to Lincoln and FDR intended.

7. Prevent and Punish Major Forms of Economic Predation. In different ways, wage theft, financial scams, “drip pricing,” surprise fees, and highly restrictive noncompete and “stay-or-pay” contracts cost ordinary Americans billions in annual financial losses. Democrats must stand unequivocally against coercion and deception in the market and prosecute wrongdoers.

8. Promote Peace and Development in World Affairs While Rebuilding at Home. The decision to go to war must always be one of last resort. After twenty years of both parties betraying Americans’ desire for fewer foreign entanglements, Democrats must pledge a different national security strategy that reduces conflict and poverty abroad while ensuring America has the industrial, agricultural, and energy capacity to withstand future global economic shocks.

9. Enforce the Nation’s Borders, Reform DHS, and Fix the Nation’s Immigration System. Immigration has divided the country more than any other issue in recent years, yet in many respects America has also become a more tolerant and pluralistic society than it was at the end of the 20th century. While no reform is bound to fully satisfy every constituency, Democrats must demonstrate they are committed to regulating immigration in a manner that is consistent with public opinion and public safety while pursuing fair and humane reforms that respect the rights, dignity, contributions, and community ties of those who have already built lives here.

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This list doesn’t come close to distilling every aim that reform-minded Democrats might consider essential. There are certainly many other goals that could be highlighted, from resurrecting the PRO Act to investing in family policy to repairing our public water systems. There is no mention, meanwhile, of climate change or the national debt, nor of the cultural liabilities that Democrats must address in order to forge the strongest possible coalition. To some extent the nation’s challenges cannot be met through domestic politics alone. A wealth tax and other legislation that eliminates tax loopholes that favor the ultrarich are required for any reform program worthy of the name. But as in matters of war and peace, such measures will require much firmer international cooperation in order to be truly successful. There is, finally, the risk that even if reforms that are Rooseveltian in scope are passed, they will be overwhelmed by the transformations AI is catalyzing. In that case, a “new tech social contract,” as Representative Ro Khanna has called for, would take center stage—though even that may not be enough to answer what is coming down the pike.

Democrats are notorious for factional squabbles that lead to weak consensus and dispiriting compromises. But the case for a radically simple yet bold agenda should be evident. As they contemplate the story they want to tell to the American people, it is imperative that forward-looking Democrats have the candor and courage to identify the grave challenges ahead. Trump’s support may soon disintegrate, and his potential heirs may face dismal odds come 2028. Democrats, however, will remain at a disadvantage in too many parts of the country if they cannot, in plain, direct language, communicate a powerful vision to heighten the agency and aspirations of working Americans.

At this pivotal moment, Democrats ought to fearlessly examine the contrast they’ve drawn with their adversaries—and consider whether it has any hope of realigning our politics toward the common good. A fatigued and demoralized public deserves an opposition party that can.