Post-Obama, Democrats are a party without a cause

There is still a shared view that broadening opportunity for all remains at the heart of the Democratic Party. “The bumper sticker is now ‘income fairness,’” said Barney Frank, a former Massachusetts congressman.

Yet there is no consensus over how to address the country’s persistent wage stagnation, or even if any sweeping legislation can be achieved at all in a time of deepening polarization and when the Republican Party has little desire to compromise.

For now, many in the party whose presidents ushered in Social Security, the G.I. Bill and civil rights seem most focused on infrastructure.

It is hardly the stuff of the Great Society, a moonshot or even “a chicken in every pot.” But there is a view among Democrats that rebuilding the country’s roads, bridges, airports and railways represents an opportunity to use government in a way that can create jobs, appeal to both wings of their own party and win over some Republicans, who may have a difficult time saying no to an infusion of money for their states and districts.