Can the Democratic Party do much – or anything of significance – to ameliorate economic conditions? Outsourcing, technological substitution for human workers (robotization), global wage competition and slow growth circumscribe the ability of the Obama White House to promote equality or to intervene in behalf of economic losers.

Demographics look promising for the Democratic Party, but the people who make up those demographics seek economic change that the party shows no signs of delivering – and may not be able to deliver. The party has mastered the techniques of turning out its voters, at least in presidential election years, but it now faces the much more difficult task of improving the lives of its supporters.

It’s not clear that the Democratic Party, as currently constituted, is prepared to take on that task. Has it even conceptualized, let alone implemented, adequate economic or political innovation? Nor is it clear whether the global and domestic forces now imposing such heavy costs on the poor and even the middle class lend themselves to government-directed amelioration.