To truly understand the economic policies a democracy must try to realize, one has to hark back to the founder of democratic economics: Sir Adam Smith.
He was a wise philosopher, and understood the intricacies of economics. Now, where do that lead us to?
First of all, again Smith had a wise understanding of economics, a wiser understanding than we realize today. We use his book; The Wealth of nations to understand the ways of international monetary machinery. Or rather, most liberal capitalist minded people do. There is Ayn Rand, but really behind Rand there is the Wealth of nations as an ideological underpinning of free trade.
In opposition to this there is Keynes. His philosophy is basically an easy fix to economy. According to his ideas, you pump out money in society to try to invoke extra production. You know, production of houses, infrastructure and so on.
Now this is, as rationalization, just a temporary fix. It will adjust the economy for a while, but it does not, with all respect to Keynes, adjust the true problems of an economy in recession.
Why is an economy in recession? It is because the production environment are failing to deliver jobs and money in regards of local injection of resources into society. The factory is like a juggernaut of bliss in a local economy. The jobs that is created there, is like an injection of real value. The workers get a haircut, they buy food, they go a nice holiday. So they truly drive the economy.
So the real fix is to keep the production in the country.
Now, that is a difficult thing. You can give taxrelieves to companies that keep production in the companies. But, really, the big companies do not care that much for a minimal tax reduction, what they care about are basically other things; ease of production, production quality, quality of labour and many other things. So a country needs to create the best possible frame for the companies. Schools to put the workers children in, legislation to make it easy to make things, good quality labour, good infrastructure to move the goods around.
But, at the end of the day, usually the motivation of a company owner to produce here or there is a matter of loyalty. If the company owners feels well-respected, if he feels recognized for his work, if he feels a part of society, he will award the society with his attention.
That is where the other book of Adam Smith comes into play. According to his other book, The moral sentiment, an economist should be driven by responsibility. That is, among other things, loyalty to the nation they are part of, loyalty to the local community. Here we are back at the personal responsability.
A president can only use example and words to really inspire that development. I am quite sure, that the example and the true understanding of how things really work, will resound with voters. Voters, the man on the floor, knows these things. He does not understand the finery of economical philosophy, but he understands the jobflight, because that is what he can see. So a psychological support of the businesses that stay loyal is what is needed. People will truly understand, that that is what is needed, a leader who is willing to help bring business back to America. He cannot do it all by himself, but he can help.
That will bring the american business into a more serious state again, and that will, eventually turn the tables in the race of economical production capacity between the West and the East.
It is a matter of spirit, bring that spirit back by making those amazing speeches, and you will gain again.
G-d bless America.