One If by land, two if by sea
The British aren’t coming this time, but something else is. It’s dark, and it’s dangerous, and it’s definitely out there.
Hope is still leading the race .. the recent votes in Ohio and Kansas demonstrate it clearly .. but Fear, and Confusion, and Hate are right behind, spreading their wings, and their tentacles. But this isn’t a race between us and MAGA, that’s what we desperately have to realize. This is a race between us and ourselves. Are we going to focus on what’s ahead, on the bright light that is our country’s future? Are we going to seize this pivotal moment in American history, when the very direction of our national soul is at stake? Are we going to become the champions of hope? Is our mission going to be setting this country firmly on the road to a just society? Or are we going to remain obsessed with the dark shape that lies behind, the one that always seems to be gaining on us? Are we going to be lost into endlessly defending?
That is the real question we face in 2024. Purpose. What is our purpose as a party? Are we going to continue to be obsessed with MAGA, to focus all our attention on beating back the Republicans with traditional tactics so we can win the next election .. the very essence of the traditional political party we’ve been for decades? Or are we going to stand up as a moral force, a political party that uses those same traditional methods to push a sense of higher purpose? To do all the same hard election work, but to look at it as an enduring project to create a just society? That is the fundamental question: is the process of traditional election tactics who we are, or do they serve who we are?
The difference isn’t the tactics themselves. Washington isn’t going away, or the highly-paid Washington consultants, or the importance of money and donors, or any of the rest. But .. and it’s a big “but” .., if all that serves a sense of higher identity, if it serves a higher purpose that most Americans can identify with, then we have the makings of real victory.
But real victory isn't what we keep visualizing. Real victory isn’t winning 51% of the national vote. It isn’t eking out the White House or control of Congress (and it certainly isn’t living in fear of MAGA and Trump). Real victory is moving steadily, election after election, towards an undeniable supermajority, the kind of national mandate that allows for the fundamental changes we all want, the changes this country so desperately needs.
That’s our choice, and it isn’t about changing the way we run election campaigns. It’s about changing the way we think about them. Changing thinking is difficult, maybe the most difficult of all. But ironically, it’s free. It doesn’t cost a thing to proclaim a higher purpose. It doesn’t cost a penny to proclaim the Democratic Creed as our identity, or a just society as long as it takes as our vision.
It just requires will.
J.M. Purvis, Author and Founder of Democrats 101
Flash! Over 40 organizations in 8 States have now adopted the Democratic Creed: Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.
We welcome Charlotte County Dems (FL) and San Juan Dems (WA) who are the first counties in their state to adopt the Creed and the first two in 2024 to do so.
Thinking of adopting the Creed? Get in touch: info@dems101.org
