A message to rural America
Why is it so hard to be a Democrat in a rural county? Why are Democrats you know afraid to even say they’re Democrats? Why are you a Democrat?
Being a Democrat is about wanting to make things better, your community, your state, and your nation. Our identity is what we believe. Our identity is about who we are, why we got into this in first place.
Jim Purvis, the author and founder of Democrats 101, explains that "Our identity is powerful because it’s American. Our core beliefs come straight from the Declaration of Independence.
But, that powerful identity doesn’t exist until we make it exist. That, is why the Democratic Creed exists. That is why the specific definitions of Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity exist. That is why the book, Democrats 101, was written. To take back our identity. To make Democrats proud again.
Change
Nothing is going to change in this country until we have a clear, fundamental statement of values. That means a statement that is written down and acknowledged by everyone, even those with hate in their heart. That clear statement has to define who we are, not just as Democrats, but as Americans, what we aspire to as a nation. And that clear statement has to originate inside our party. There is no one else.
Making that statement means accepting that we are more than just a political party, that our purpose is far bigger than just the next election. It means accepting that we have a moral imperative: to create a just society … as long as it takes.
None of this starts in Washington. None of this happens from the top down. This starts with the grassroots of the Democratic Party. This starts with you, the county parties and Indivisibles and all the other activist out there. Because there is no one else.
Barbarians!
They are at the gate. They’re at the side door, too, and the back door, and crawling through the basement windows. They’re everywhere, because the Barbarians aren’t really a person, they’re an idea: that social progress can be turned around, that history can be undone, that if you close your eyes tight enough, you can make it 1950 again.
Yes, Donald Trump is real. And so is the threat of another Trump Presidency. And, yes, we have to do everything in our power to defeat it, every bit of campaigning, every attack ad we can think of. But if defeating him in November is all we do, then we’re going to be left standing right where we were in the aftermath of 2020, the same place we’ve been for the past twenty years: stuck in the mud, looking at an endless struggle to win 51%.
The Barbarians have a message. They have a powerful message, and it’s about more than Donald Trump. It's a clever message that allows you to believe whatever you want as long as you close your eyes and join in. It’s powerful because it’s simple, it’s universal (for them), and it’s emotional.
WE ARE IN A MESS
We’re in a mess. Our country is in a mess, our party’s in a mess, and it’s likely to get worse next November. If we want to fix things … and we can ... then the first thing we have to do is step back and recognize what’s really going on. We’re not suffering from a failure of effort, we’re suffering from a failure of vision.
Our country is in the middle of a vast, slow-motion social revolution, a true moment in American history. We’ve had political upheaval before, economic disasters far bigger than this one, wars even, but the amount of change going on in social norms, the upheaval in the basic tenets and traditions that control our everyday lives, that has never really happened before. And it isn’t about to stop, not for a long time.