Democratic Party should focus more on alternatives to Republican planning on energy, economics, city planning, transportation and environmental issues.

There is quite a bit of talk that the Democratic Party should place less emphasis on what is called "identity politics," such as men versus women, sexuality, race, class and so forth.

I have a slightly different take, but similar. I think the goals of a more equitable society are still valid, but old strategies to achieve them seem to be at a dead end.

I would like to see more focus on the technical issues of how to make our economy greener and work better for everyone. We need to be talking about city planning, transportation, power grids, water, streets, housing and so forth.

There are lots of good ideas that are often discussed in the local level of politics, that should be more discussed at the national level. Topics such as how do we deal with lack of water in the Colorado River, for instance?

How do we juggle energy needs with, for instance, the effects of hydropower dams on salmon?

How do we integrate solar energy into the power grid? Can we develop more nuclear power and ideally hydrogen fusion? What is the future of the automobile, transit, the Interstate Freeway system and so forth?

How can we change the economy so housing becomes more affordable to more classes of people (speaking of classes "identity politics"). I think that the goals of equity are still valid, for the most part, but I think technical, planning and economic discussions could work better.

As for race and identity politics, lack of affordable housing is one of the big things that divides people. People of color, tend to be less apt, on average, to be homeowners and can be locked out of neighborhoods not necessarily due to overt racism, but simply due to price.

Do people really wish to significantly increase inheritance taxes, for instance, to create more equity? We could tax windfall homeonwer value back to the community; rather than allowing so much wealth to be passed down from generation to generation.

Zoning has a lot to do with this also. Too many popular areas are still zoned in restrictive "single family zoning." We need more mixed use zoning. Steps are being taken, in that direction, by many local levels of government; such as state, county and city governments. That is a positive sign.