Introduction
Dear Madam Vice-President,
As Michelle Obama said – Do something. This is my something.
It is no secret that to achieve victory in November, you must deliver a solid message to the Independents as well as the NeverTrumpers who cannot see themselves ever voting for a Democrat. I am very much tuned in to what my friends post on social media. Many will never vote you for, many will never vote for DJT, and some are still undecided. I believe these “target persuadables (TPs)” can be won over by clarifying/defining your position on the below topics:
Voter ID
It is America in 2024. You need ID for many purposes. Requiring a government ID at a voting station seems reasonable to me and most everybody I know. It should be to you too. Not supporting this gives life to the claim that Democrats cheat by allowing non-citizens to vote.
The liberal-left vision
The TPs want “the less fortunate” to stop blaming their poor life choices on capitalism and further believe that at the heart of the liberal-left agenda is more re-distribution of wealth and printing more money. The TPs believe this equality will include things like a free college education, free healthcare, money for rent or a home, food, etc.
The TPs believe you cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating wealth out of prosperity. You should be re-emphasizing you believe in equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome and dispel the myth that the Democrats want to change our system from a constitutional republic that provides individual liberty into a democracy where the majority can vote themselves money to be seized from those who have it.
Student Debt Relief
TPs understand that forgiving student debt does not mean the debt goes away. The debt is just transferred to someone else – more specifically it transfers the loan to those who never asked for the loan, received the loan, or benefited from the loan. Debt forgiveness is a bad idea. Instead consider promoting a fixed student loan rate of 3% administered by the IRS and defund these quasi-government servicing agencies that are gauging students and their families.
The Economy
The TPs believe that a government solution to a problem is often as bad as the problem, if not worse. For instance, your proposal to give first time homeowners $25,000 is not seen as a satisfactory solution. Instead, they suggest incentivizing builders to build 3MM new homes (your way just contributes to inflation in the housing market). I do not think they are wrong here.
Imho, the TPs fail to realize that DJT was president when the first Cares Act was passed authorizing the infusion of 2.2 trillion dollars into the economy at a time when many supplies were restrained. Biden infused similar dollars in the early months of his administration. Inflation was inevitable. Educate people how we got here and compliment the Fed for their policy in combatting inflation.
Taxes
The TPs do not know whether they are part of “your” middle class because you have not really defined how big or small that class is. They believe any new tax cuts will not apply to them because they earn too much. News flash – a $120k income in America does not make someone wealthy anymore. I would argue that an income below $50k/year is the lower class and $50k-200k is the middle class.
The Supreme Court
Many TPs believe reforms are needed. Propose adding new justices to the court, mandate a code of ethics for the justices, and convey you would sign legislation to set term limits.
Wokeness/CRT/DEI
Everyone needs to be reminded that America is a complicated place. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, no official national language, no national religion. Fifty states and ten territories. Different regions of our country with vastly different histories. Immigrants from all corners of the world. The history of America is rich in tales. Some of them are extraordinary. Some of them quite simply shameful. The TPs believe teaching our children about our nation’s past transgressions will create a generation of America haters and stir even more racial division. You need to allay those fears – all our history needs to be studied so we can learn from it, to make adjustments that in the end make us a stronger nation. Perhaps promote that civics should again be taught in school. The benefits of an informed citizenry are vital to our nation’s survival. Do you see where taking it out of the curriculum has brought us?
DJT
DJT alleges he is being persecuted, not prosecuted. The TPs think you are doing little to dispel that myth and not doing enough to call out DJT’s lies, exaggerations, pufferies, and gibberish statements. Your ads and stump speeches need to directly challenge his many “misstatements” and his flip flops on his stances. Put him on defense, so you can play offense.
Immigration
TPs do not like Trump’s plan to deport 11MM+ undocumented immigrants, but as potentially costly and in humanitarian as it might be, at least they know (kind of) what his plan is. What plan would you support if you won and had control of Congress? Sure, it is complicated and is a big weakness as you were our country’s past border czar.
May I suggest? You keep Biden’s border closures in place. You do not believe in mass deportation of 11MM+ undocumented immigrants but believe in deporting any known criminals. You believe in enforcing quotas, temporary visas, and stricter guidelines for emergency asylum requests, increased penalties on businesses for hiring people without legal work authorization, expanding the border wall and fence, and creating a pathway for immigrants currently in the country illegally to acquire US citizenship. The fine should be hefty with a healthy dose of community service.
Concluding Thoughts
On July 4, 2026, our nation will commemorate and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. What will this celebration look like if DJT is elected? Will it look like a military parade one would see in China, Russia, or North Korea celebrating that order has been restored and America is once again under white Christian rule? Will Trump have his face plastered on all four sides of the Washington monument? Will we be celebrating a door-to-door campaign that deported millions of immigrants that DJT found undesirable? Will we be celebrating a nation where there is one set of laws for the wealthy, the connected, those who pay homage to the king and another system for everybody else? Will we be celebrating our last free and fair election? Will we be putting creationism into our textbooks and taking natural selection out? Will we be celebrating the continued assault on re-writing literature, banning books, denying history? Will we be celebrating that more rights have returned to the States?
Or will this celebration be one of fireworks celebrating our freedoms to live our lives the way we choose? That America’s experiment is alive and well. What started as a nation with noble ideals for all but in practice was a government setup to protect the property rights of white men is changing and expanding. And that is a good thing.
While decency, respect, temperament, common sense, restoring faith in our institutions are all on the ballot, clarifying your positions and calling out DJT daily, may make your win a landslide.
Respectfully,
David Nozick