Sam, you sound just as confused as everyone else, including me. I don't know exactly what the Democrats' flagship ideas should be.

But I think a couple of simple principles should guide the search: One, If implemented, they should work. Yes, a party has to get elected, but most of us who call ourselves Democrats want to be elected in order to make Americans' lives as good as they can be. If our platform does not begin from that premise, then who are we or where are we?

Two, Implementation can be complex, but we have to learn to explain the core of the complex ideas simply.

Three, we should not look to Europe for examples because Europe has fallen way behind the U.S. economically of late and because we are different, with different resources and different problems.

Five years ago, I tried to summarize the economic issues in a 130-page book, Capitalism for America. It explains some of the economic choices we have to make in simple, I hope not simplistic, terms. My biased opinion is that it would help if more Democrats would read it.