Let’s face it – many congressional politicians are not capable of creating good ideas by themselves because most of them are simply not “idea” people. Their talents often lie more in public speaking, promotion, and marketing. If they were in a corporate structure, many would likely be support department heads, perhaps in the legal office or marketing and sales. Admittedly, most are excellent public speakers with the ability to persuade voters to listen to them and believe in what they are saying. That is a talent in itself, and is no small feat, of course. But since many cannot create good ideas on their own, they are easily swayed by the allure of someone else’s ideas, especially when those ideas are accompanied with campaign contributions to pay for the next election.

Consequently, many/most congressional politicians wait for lobbyists, activist groups, and their political party to bring them ideas and direction. And if money is included with that idea, chances are that idea will be considered a “good” idea. Unfortunately, a good idea for a narrowly-focused lobbyist representing a special interest or ideologically-biased activist group is often not a good idea for everyone else, and especially not for America’s middle/working economic classes, who often must pay the price for those “good” ideas.

Furthermore, both parties suffer from a lack of good ideas, but differently. Republican ideas are often implemented aggressively and frequently for the benefit of the investor class. For instance, deregulation of business restrictions and reducing taxes for high wage-earners are common goals of Republican legislation. The Dems, on the other hand, talk about a wide array of ideas that often dilutes their focus and messaging.
Topics that bring out passion in the Democratic politicians often appear as left-of-center topics and not moderate issues that would be especially interesting to America’s middle/working class. In addition, when Dems do focus on ideas that may benefit the middle class, often they are too limited in scope to impress anyone.

For instance, the Biden administration led the price reduction of ten pharmaceutical drugs to the benefit of all and that was a good idea. But it was not impressive to many voters because it was too limited in scope realizing ten drugs out of the 23,000 prescription drugs sold annually in the US has a modest impact. Plus, the
pharmaceutical companies were given the gift they lobbied for by allowing the changes to be deferred until 2026, way too far in the future for the Dems to receive any credit in 2024 (when they could have used it). What a waste of political capital!

In contrast, look at the changes the Trump administration is trying to make virtually overnight. You may consider many of these changes inappropriate, illegal or make little sense, but, unlike Dems, it shows him as a forceful and aggressive doer and many American voters are attracted to those qualities. We acknowledge that Trump may be the most controversial American politician since Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950’s, but we also realize he is a very unique and amazingly successful marketer and tough-sounding salesman. We further realize that many people mistake aggressiveness bordering on arrogance for leadership, but those of us who have served in the military know aggressiveness and arrogance are very different than leadership, and often get in the way of making good decisions.

The bottom line is this – most congressional politicians cannot create good ideas for America’s middle/working classes by themselves, and have been conditioned to support ideas that come from special interests that either support them personally or support their political party. The truth is neither party appears comfortable (or interested) in truly advocating for the middle of the country, regardless of their speeches and advertising that pander to voters during elections.