For years, I’ve held onto a memo that a professional mentor gave me around 1990, a typewritten document by the pollster Stanley Greenberg with the title “Kids as Politics.” Mr. Greenberg, who has shown the sharpest understanding of traditionally Democratic voters drawn to the appeal of Ronald Reagan then or Donald Trump today, argued that a political agenda centered on children could not only improve kids’ lives but also open the door to a broader liberalism and to Democrats more generally; kid-centered politics would help Americans “rediscover government.”
Politics centered on children went beyond a few federal programs. “When candidates talk about kids,” Mr. Greenberg wrote, “they are talking about the fundamental economic and social terrain on which Democrats must run.”
Mr. Greenberg’s memo, now more than 30 years old, is strikingly relevant to the current moment. CONT.
Mark Schmittch (New America), New York Times