Tim Kaine

Opinion contributor

While Democrats are quite unified and generally in step with the American public on social issues, we lag on the one issue that most people deem most important.

The Republicans have a simple economic message. What do they want to do to the economy? Grow it. How do they want to grow it? Fewer taxes and less regulation.

Set aside whether or not this is actually a sufficient growth strategy for the nation or for anybody other than those at the top. The Republican message is simple and consistent.

If you ask regular folks what Democrats want to do to the economy, not many will mention growth as the goal. (This is partly due to broad anti-business rhetoric that is directed toward Wall Street or multinationals but manages to scare off entrepreneurs and small businesses too.) The Democratic economic goal is more likely to be described as about fairness, regulation, taxation or redistribution.

And if you ask folks how the Democrats plan to accomplish their economic goal(s), you often get a blank look. We are wonky people and usually have a ten point plan with multiple sub-points about jobs and the economy. Complexity doesn't communicate well and we seldom deliver an economic message that really sticks.

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My 23 years in state, local and federal politics have convinced me that Democrats will always lose on economic messaging unless we have a simple and compelling growth strategy. If the Republicans pitch growth and we pitch anything else, we lose. We can sometimes make it up on other issues, but why start behind on people’s key concern?

Democrats should focus on growth. History shows that job and income growth are typically higher under Democratic administrations. Stress that growth must be shared and sustainable, both economically and environmentally. Growth in GDP that just accrues to a narrow band of folks at the top is woefully inadequate. We should measure growth by wage growth and poverty reduction and business start-ups and increased economic mobility.

And how do Democrats plan to grow the economy? If the Republicans are about less taxes and less regulations, we should be about better skills, better jobs and better wages.

Better skills in our people and communities — through innovative K-12 education, affordable college, apprenticeships, job training, immigration — will make us more competitive in a world where talent is now the most precious resource. We need to double down on retraining people whose jobs are destroyed by shifts in trade. And when the main economic disruptor is not trade but technological advances, better skills are the most certain way for people and communities to keep up and get ahead. Finally, better skills are key to new waves of innovation that maintain our creative edge.

Better jobs are a natural for a party with strong ties to working people. Fighting for workers’ rights must stay central to what we do. Better health and child care allow people to work more productively. Incentives to promote job growth in rural America and our inner cities are critical. Pushing for sustained investment in our nation’s infrastructure — transportation, broadband, clean energy, school renovation — with the skills training to get the work done is a way to expand job opportunities while continually raising the platform for economic success.

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And better wages — a minimum wage that gets you above the poverty level, complete pay equity for women, reducing the dramatic tax preference for earnings over wages and salary — put more wealth into the hands of regular Americans. Stagnant wages for the American worker are one of the most troubling trends of the last three decades.

“Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages” is a pro-growth economic message that is true to who Democrats are. Our party has long supported investments in the workforce, infrastructure spending and bigger paychecks. We won’t have trouble convincing folks that we are sincere and serious in pushing this basic economic strategy.

And it’s a strategy that works. Pro-growth progressives have followed it in Virginia and we have a low unemployment rate, a high median income, and a highly educated population. And when it works for people, it works politically. Virginia Democrats have helped shift the state from reliably red to trending blue in presidential elections, won three of the last four governor’s races and currently hold all five statewide elected offices.

Woody Guthrie sang it so well decades ago — “The gambling man is rich and the working man is poor.” The fewer taxes/less regulation strategy most advantages those who have lots of money to move around. Democrats can win if our economic message speaks to working people and gives them confidence that we don’t view growth as a four letter word.

Tim Kaine, the Democrat's 2016 vice presidential nominee, served as mayor of Richmond and governor of Virginia before his election to the Senate in 2012.

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