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.

An opportunity

Some of this upheaval has brought real opportunity: a chance to right social evils that have persisted since the very beginnings of our country. But these same changes have caused tremendous economic and cultural dislocation, a sense of constant cultural instability has laid a blanket of anxiety over the country.

The Republican Party understands this perfectly. They’ve changed the rules of the game and turned traditional politics into a war over culture. This cultural war isn’t about policy or logic, it’s about emotional identity, it’s about who you believe you are. It’s about “us” versus “them”. That is the entire Republican strategy. Divide us into warring tribes, and … by hook or by crook … turn their tribe into 50%, then use it to block everything. 

Who we are is powerful

And here we sit, trying to end this mounting stalemate by doing the same things over and over again. Is it any wonder that our people are tired, disheartened, that so many feel we’re adrift? We have to step up. We change this situation by turning the Republican strategy on its head. We change the entire conversation. Enough with explaining and defending and scratching our heads in disbelief, we need to make the entire political conversation about who we are, because who we are is powerful. Who we are is also something that has the potential to unite us with Independents and disaffected Republicans, to turn us into a true supermajority, but it’s not going to happen until we recognize what it really is.

There is only one thing that unites every single Democrat in this country: our values, our core beliefs. These beliefs not only unite us, they inspire. These values are powerful because they are American values. We all sense these values, but we never talk about them. We have to change that. We have to make these core values our public identity, the first thing we talk about and the last thing we close with. We need a Creed.

And we need a vision. We need to stand … publicly …for something more than just the next election. We need to stand for more than politics altogether. The Democratic Party needs to stand for hope. That needs to be in every message we put out. We need the American people to see us as a way to make change work, to make the future work. This November 8th is important. So are local issues. That’s our immediate goal, but it can’t be our identity. We need people to know that we’re in it for the long haul, that we’re about the next five elections, the next ten elections. Our identity needs to be about making American a just society, as long as it takes.

What can you do

Changing all this is a big job, and it’s not going to happen overnight. But it isn’t going to happen at all unless we start making it happen. That means you. This kind of change doesn’t come from the top down. It doesn’t come from Washington, or national figures. It comes from the grassroots up. It comes from ordinary people saying “enough!”. Regular people seizing the idea of values and vision and talking about it to the people they know. 

We know you care. More will be coming soon on concerted actions you can take. In the meantime, know that the only sure way is to engage people, make them think about all this. Democrats 101 is nothing more than a vehicle, a way to spread these ideas. Push the book and its ideas to everyone you know, no matter where they live or what they believe. Join us, help make this happen.

More articles by J.M. Purvis