DEMS 101 GOES TO THE DNC
Yes! Democrats 101 is present at the Democratic National Convention. Look for our new a just society .. as long as it takes bracelets on delegates’ wrists, and the Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity cards and definitions being passed around. We are truly thrilled that the Harris campaign has taken up the cry of Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity. Those three words are Democrats in a nutshell. They are what it means to be a true American.
Freedom, Justice and Opportunity
We are thrilled that the Harris campaign has picked up Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity as a major campaign theme. Thrilled, but not surprised. Those three words hold power, but the ideas that underly them are even more powerful. And they’re ours. The values in the Democratic Creed, the definitions of Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity that are embedded with it are powerful. The vision of a just society .. as long as it takes appeals to everybody. These things inspire universally because they stem from the opening words of the Declaration of Independence. And those words .. those ideas .. have been empowering our party since 1932. They are literally the soul of our party.
a special message from dems101
It’s time for women, and men, to stand up and celebrate .. celebrate and demand. August 26th is the 104th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. That event establishing the right to vote for women was historic, one in a line of historic American moments in our march towards true Democracy, towards the goal of a just society .. as long as it takes.
That century-old concept of fundamental rights is under attack. Dobbs is just the latest example of what has become a relentless assault, an attempt to turn back the clock. The moment to stand up for these rights .. for women’s rights and everyone else’s .. is now, and there is no better opportunity than August 26th, the very symbol of a woman’s basic right to equality.
UPCOMING EVENTS
MICHIGAN: RURAL SUMMIT 2024
Dems101 will be at the “Rural Summit 2024”, sponsored by the Michigan Rural Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party. The event will take place on April 11-13, 2024 at the Shanty Creek Resort in Bellaire, Michigan.
GEORGIA: CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 9
Jim Purvis. Founder and Author of Democrats 101, and State Representative Joe Miller (District 53, Ohio) will address county chairs and activists of the 9th Congressional District on April 13th, 2024 at the Craddock Center near Blue Ridge, Georgia.
OHIO: FOUR CORNERS
On Saturday April 20th, Dems101 will participate in the Four Corners event at Bowling Green State University, sponsored by the Ohio Democratic Party’s Rural Caucus.
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?
An open letter from a red county Democratic Chair
Like many of you, I am a Democratic Party Chair in a very red rural county (Huron, Ohio) where just getting a Democrat to run for office is almost impossible. But, I look at my grandkids and think I have to do something. Something to begin the necessary conversations to raise awareness of the dangerous times we are in.
Those conversations cannot begin with policies. We have to reach common ground first. Freedom, Justice and Opportunity are values that are difficult to claim as belonging to only one party - they belong to all of us, Democrat, Republican, Unaffiliated. Defining Democrats as having these values is critical to having our views listened to and having credibility.
2024: Chaos, or unity?
The chaos part is easy. “2024” means November 5th, and that means fear. Trump. That one word. And we’re all determined to stand against him. All the way. But is that enough? Is that even the right way to look at it? If we attack him relentlessly, then defeat him again the same way we did in 2020 .. by the same margins .. what changes? What will another 51% victory leave in its wake?
The forces that created Trump will still be there. MAGA and its adherents, and the vast money machine that created them, will still exist. So will the deep tribalism they have managed to create. Their ability to take fear and hate and a coordinated campaign of lies, and turn it into a political machine capable of challenging for control of government, that will still be there as well.
And once we’ve defeated Trump permanently .. and losing a second Presidential election will do just that .. what do we do? Once we are no longer united by fear of Trump, what becomes of us? Do we go back to fighting each other, Progressives versus Moderates, elites versus the heartland? Do we go back to pushing this policy and that while regular Democrats, the lifeblood of our party, go back to feeling alienated and demoralized? Fear of Trump has united us. What will unite us once he’s gone?
A special letter to every angry Democrat in this country
Two counties in rural Georgia have just sent a message, and they’ve sent it to you. There’s nowhere redder than Oglethorpe and Gilmer Counties, no people more surrounded by MAGA hats and giant Trump flags and endless personal harassment .. no Democrats more angry and fed up. And now they’ve taken a stand. They’ve said enough! They’ve adopted the Democratic Creed officially, and with it they’ve sent a message
INSPIRE
“Inspire” is the word we’re missing. It’s the emotion we’re missing, as Democrats, as Americans who care about guiding this nation towards a future as a truly just society. If we’re not inspired towards our ultimate goal, if we don’t see it clearly, how will we get there?
MAGA inspires. Trump inspires. They inspire a sense of emotional identity, of enduring passion, something far deeper and far stronger than politics. Why don’t we inspire? Forget the next election campaign and the latest issue, why doesn’t the Democratic Party itself inspire? Why doesn’t who we are as a party cause Democrats to stand up with pride all over this country, sweeping independents and unaffiliated with them?
DEMS 101: the idea spreads!
Delta County (Michigan) Democratic Party will host an evening with Democrats 101 on Wednesday, November 1, 2023. Bryan Watson will be the featured speaker before Democrats from around Michigan's Upper Peninsula. If you'd like more information, please contact the Delta County Democratic Party at deltademsmi@gmail.com.
words, words, words
“… 80% of people in this country who share the ideals of our founding, who share the idea that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness .. at least 80% of this country shares the same basic values that we do.”
Quick, who said that?
Abraham Lincoln 2. Barack Obama 3. Joe Biden
or 4. Vivek Ramaswamy
Yes! Vivek Ramaswamy, the Trump wannabe did. He said it just the other day, and you shouldn’t be surprised. It’s what’s been going on for decades .. decades .. right in front of our noses, the theft of language. We have, in fact, all but helped them do it.
That quote is accurate, of course, he just mixed up the parties. But to his listeners, he didn’t get it wrong at all, he hit the nail on the head. Why? Because it sounded good. It made them feel good. And that’s what happens when messaging has no purpose beyond gaining power.
Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity are what we stand for as Democrats, what we all feel is in our hearts. But we have never written it down. We have never stood up and declared it in simple, unequivocal English that everyone can understand. And we have never gone on to declare it, over and over again, until every American in this nation has started to believe it. That’s the problem. Our sensing it is not enough. That so many of us assume it isn’t, either. These things, these ideas, have to be made public, and they have to dominate.
our moment
We are standing at a true moment in American history, a fork in the road that will decide our future as a nation. This fork isn’t about Donald Trump, and it isn’t about the next election. It’s about something much, much deeper. For the first time ever as a nation, we are actually facing up to the fundamental principal American democracy: are all people created equal? Do all of us .. everywhere .. have the same right to equal Freedom, equal Justice, and equal Opportunity? That is what’s really going on.
We have nibbled at the concept of equality for nearly 250 years. Back in 1776, of course, we had virtually none. Wealthy white males didn’t just dominate society, it was considered normal. Women didn’t count at all. Blacks and Native Americans were considered subhuman. Being born gay was considered an aberration worthy of either prison or death, and Catholics were considered spawn of the Devil.
evil is evil
When are Democrats going to stop reacting? When do we stop defending? Yes, Florida Republicans used language in a bill that says somehow, some part of slavery might have benefitted slaves. Yes, it’s sneaky. Yes, it’s despicable.
Our response? To lament the action. To send the vice President down to show outrage. That, is defending.
Our response should be a powerful, public statement of just how evil slavery was. A once and for all, clear and unequivocal statement of just how destructive the institution was, for the slaves above all, but also for the country .. morally, in blood, in destroyed lives, in the endless racism we are still paying for today. Slavery was evil. Period.
The urge
America was born into an ideal: that all people were created equal. That ideal was immediately submerged in a world that was very unequal. In 1776, most injustice wasn’t even considered injustice, just the way of things. But that founding ideal of innate equality persisted. It endured, and it spread, because it represented a very human urge to seek Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity, the same urge that had caused so many of those early Americans to come in the first place.
This idea of the innate equality of people spread rapidly among the common people during the Revolution. Few of us have even heard about this, just how many people began to look at the lofty Enlightenment sentiments being voiced by the elite white men leading the revolution, and began wondering “why not me, too?”
FILLINg a hole
The Supreme Court has spoken, and it’s going to go on speaking for a long time. But what is it really saying? That decision on gay rights isn’t really about gay rights, and the decision on affirmative action isn’t really about race. Deep down, these decisions … all of them, including Dobbs and those endless ones yet to come … are really a statement about a giant hole in this country, a spiritual hole: the lack of commonly accepted, fundamental American values. We don’t have those values written down anywhere, the basic beliefs that say who we are.
America has never had such a statement of values. Ever. For the first two hundred plus years, it didn’t matter. Nobody agreed on national values, so basically there weren’t any. Racism and injustice were ingrained in society. They were accepted. As a result, social progress was tough. It was bought very, very slowly, one agonizing issue at a time.
We have a story
We have a story that begins with with FDR, a mythical figure who was actually a very real human being, a man crippled in the prime of his life, yet who found the courage to abandon the precepts of his wealthy upbringing and work for the common good. His story is our story as Democrats: leading this nation out of a national catastrophe, then through a World War, and in the process creating the vision of a government that works for the people. That story that led to Social Security and workers rights and an end to child labor, then on to Medicaid and Medicare and voting rights and every other bit of social progress inspired by his vision. FDR’s story is indeed our story, even today, the endless struggle to keep that vision of a government of and for the people alive, and to make it work. FDR did nothing less than found our party and lay the emotional foundations for the idea of a truly just society.
The Real Meaning of the Fourth of July - Part 1
We own values. Our core beliefs are who we are, and they’re powerful. Yet, we Democrats never seem to recognize it, we never seem to look deeper. We cling to policies, and purity tests, and squabbling. We divide ourselves endlessly. We take apparent victory and turn it into defeat, and we do it over and over again. And each time we scratch our heads and ask “why?”
The Republicans understand we own values, that’s why they have spend so much time and money demonizing us. It’s why they’ve had a giant organization working in the background for decades, just to destroy our identity. They fear our values because they’re American values, because they stand for this country’s future, because deep down most Americans want to believe in them.
But these core values are never going to really be seen as our values … as our identity … until we stand up and declare them, till we own them. And there’s no better example than the Fourth of July.
Why counties in ohio are adopting The Creed?
Why counties in Ohio are adopting The Creed?
"It is just concise, it's our and we are first" said Sharon Sweda, Vice-Chair of Lorain County in Ohio about The Creed from "Democrats 101" by J.M. Purvis. She added "What I like for once, we are on the offense".
Karen Prelipp, Chair of Huron County in Ohio felt that "this [The Creed] should be every American's ethos" and that "it is something that Democrats are hungry for."