Which ever party shows itself to be a one trick pony will lose the next Presidential Election. By then the two existing parties, Democrats and Republicans, will represent about half the registered voting public with the other half being either Independents, or belong to an outlier cause. The Independents will elect the next President under the party name of their candidate of choice. The Party and candidate that maintains or takes power will have to have a new compelling platform. The Party that uses the same issues and memes of the last election only more intensely will lose and stay lost for a long time. This is a critical moment not to be a one trick pony.

The Republican Party has shown us their newest trick (MAGA) and so far it has been a bust, if not an actual crime. The Democratic party is running like an old eight cylinder engine firing on only three cylinders which inspires no one. Neither can win the next election without an infusion of independents. The art of politics into the future is to guess what most of the independents want, need and for which they will take the trouble to vote

Immodest Proposal for Good.

To prevail in this next Presidential election, provide focus that speaks to the heart of the nation. Some suggestions listed in rank order

1. Justice: Due process for all. Justice has been sold down the road in this administration in the pursuit of revenge and retribution and most of that energy was wasted on old issues, long ago litigated. Independents are tired and some number are scared of this administration’s ill tempered childishly foolish approach to something so fundamental and serious as human rights and formal justice. 
2. Freedom of Religion: This administration has leaned toward a Christian Nationalism while dismissing morality. The contradiction can’t be missed by most independents. Whole religions have been written out of existence by the current Department of Defense. A focused ecumenical morality is the winner here. We don’t need a puritanical approach but rather a commitment to civility, hospitality, generosity, and kindness to citizens. visitors, and immigrants. In short we need adults.
3. Equal Opportunity: This conversation is a mine field. Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity are two conversations. In the manufacturing of divisive culture wars, the liberal side has been tricked into arguing for Affirmative Action, while the conservatives disingenuously argued for Equal Opportunity. In reality they are one and the same. Equal Opportunity though is the header and Affirmative Action a limited but sometimes necessary tool. The winner will not let that false division separate their platform from full Equal Opportunity for all. 
4. Democracy: We are in the process of sacrificing our democracy because we have settled for a divided congress neutralized in carrying out its responsibilities to the balance of power. This is not an accident but rather and autocrat’s prep work. This is a another impact of systemic culture wars operated on false issues. The winner here understands power in balance is different from power/no power. The voter needs to go to the polls realizing that our Congress has to have the mature intelligence to go across the aisle to consolidate power, rather than tell half truths and lies to dilute the opposition’s and therefore the nation’s power. If you are going to gamble, gamble on the sense that independents want a mature democracy over a half baked autocracy. 
5. Human Rights: This is an international conversation that we as a nation must have. Under Human Rights falls gender rights. The liberals have been siphoned off in the culture wars defending gender rights when in fact they are defending the right to be the human being you are. The conservatives have figured out how to force their opponents into defending a circus or fictional accounts of abuse. The winning platform will defend every human beings right to be who they are and the spectrum of gender can be included in that positive campaign. Again this is a serious election in a serious time and the deciding votes are waiting under the Independents tent for an adult to show up. That would be good.