Ohio, Kansas and you
Why have a Democratic Creed? And why now? If this thing is so important, why didn’t someone write it a long time ago? Why? Because a long time ago .. up until quite recently .. it wasn’t possible to get every Democrat in this country to agree on those core beliefs. And it definitely wasn’t possible to get all the independents in this country to agree as well, along with most of the disaffected Republicans.
We stand where we are today .. as Democrats and as Americans .. because of more than five decades of vast social change. For the first time in American history, we are actually trying to live up to the idea that all people are created equal. For the very first time, ever, we are finally grappling with the idea of real equality between men and women, with what racial injustice truly means, with the idea of equal opportunity for everyone. We aren’t there yet. A truly just society is still a vision, but the ideal of it is now built into our national fabric. The reminders are all around us, on TV, in movies, peppered through our daily conversations. Social norms have shifted on a truly basic level, and they point us .. however haphazardly .. towards a future to be proud of.
And then there’s MAGA. MAGA and everything it represents is no accident. Powerful forces have guided it, and these people are waging an organized, highly-financed cultural war to try and derail social progress. Our failure to understand this is why we’re in the mess we’re in. It is exactly why Donald Trump became the President of the United states, and why we’re terrified he will again.
But there’s real hope. That is exactly what the recent victory on Issue One in Ohio demonstrated, the votes in Kansas and everywhere else as well. These votes weren’t really about abortion, on a fundamental, emotional level they were about who owns a woman’s body. These votes were about protecting a fundamental human right that was achieved in this country decades ago: a woman’s right to equality, a social norm that has been accepted by the vast majority of this country for a very long time. What those votes show is that 60% of all Americans [at least] accept the overall social progress that has been achieved in this country. It shows that when that 60% is given a clear choice about basic concepts of justice .. especially when they can see a direct effect on their lives .. they respond. And they do it firmly, and decisively.
This is the message we need to heed. This is the flag that is being waved so urgently by voters, and ignored by so many in our party. “Basic concepts of justice” doesn’t mean policies, and it doesn’t mean demands for linguistic purity or recognition for the issue of the moment. It means exactly that: concepts of basic Justice. And Freedom. And Opportunity.
If we focus on these things, we win. If we use our core definitions of Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity as the base for everything else .. especially our messaging .. then we appeal to that 60+% of the nation, the very people we need to bring over to gain the supermajority we need to effect real change.
But, if we continue to react, if we continue to defend, if we continue to fall back on the latest focus-group messaging that churns out endlessly from Washington and the national media, we will continue to struggle to win. We will continue to struggle endlessly for control of Congress and the White House, to say nothing of statehouses and gerrymandering and local elections. If we continue with messaging and thinking based on identity politics .. what does this particular group want to hear right now? .. we continue to foster cynicism, cynicism about not only our party, but politics in general. And that is exactly what the Republicans want. It’s their whole game.
And how has playing their game worked out? One county chair put it succinctly: “We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect to win.” Elections will, indeed, continue forever. So will our need to work on them, hard. What has to change is the thinking behind it, our sense of identity. That identity is what everything else is based on. Identity isn’t about what happens during an election campaign, it’s about what happens before. Long before the election, Americans need to see .. to subconsciously believe .. that we are not about hype and spin, that we are not playing a cynical game to gain power. They need to believe that we are the champions of the very real social progress that this country has achieved through an enormous amount of struggle and pain. They need to beieve that we stand for continuing that social progress and making this a better country for everyone, and they need to believe it long before the election campaign ever starts. That isn’t messaging, it’s identity.
Creating that identity starts with a statement of our core values and basic vision, the heart of why we’re all in this in the first place: the Democratic Creed. It starts with having real purpose, something bigger and deeper than the next election: the vision of a just society .. as long as it takes. And that starts with you, the county-level grassroots, the only ones who can make this happen. It cannot come from Washington, it can only come from you. And it starts by standing up and saying “This is who I am!”. It starts by being proud. But be clear: it needs to happen now. You and everyone you know need to take that stand now. If we wait for November, 2024, it may be too late.
Jim Purvis, Author and Founder of Dems 101
