We have a story
Leon Perskie, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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.
We have a story that encompasses the modern fight against racism, the endless struggle that began in Montgomery, Alabama so many years ago, a struggle that took the lives of countless unknown people, yet reached the point where a black man was elect President of the United States.
We have a story that includes the awakening of all those prominent white people who set aside the prejudice of their upbringing and the lure of political power to stand for what was right, people the Kennedys and LBJ and Hubert Humphrey. We have a story of political activists at all levels, known and unknown, who set off a decades-long soul searching, and in the process moved us from a party held hostage by racists to a party free of racists.
We have a story that traces our heritage back to its roots, back through early leaders of the labor movement, people like Samuel Gompers and John Lewis and Francis Perkins, back through justice reformers like the Suffragettes, back even farther through Abraham Lincoln and Sojourner Truth and all the nameless people who have fought for even the most basic of human … American … rights, fought since the very founding of this nation. They are Democrats all, united by the Common Thread we all share: the struggle for social, economic, and political justice.
Most of all, we have a story of our modern-day struggle to piece all of this together and place this nation firmly on the path to a truly just society, a story that encompasses the moment we live in right now, a true moment in American history.
We have these stories, but they will not truly be ours until we remember them. They will not become our origin story until we remember them. They will not be ours until all of us remember, and tell them over and over again until everybody understands, our friends and enemies alike. Because these stories aren’t just our stories, they’re America’s stories, and they need to be heard.
This is why DEMOCRATS 101 was written, and why the Democratic Creed has been posted. This is why so many people have read these things, why a movement has sprung into being, a grassroots effort to not only remember our heritage, but to declare the purpose it represents, to make it our stated purpose as a party: a just society … as long as it takes.
As we approach our national holiday, take a moment to reflect on the larger struggle those opening words of the Declaration of Independence have set us upon. Reflect, too, on the vast struggles that have gone on before us to bring America to this point. True Freedom, Justice , and Opportunity are not about to burst forth, but we stand at the fork in the road that will decide the final leg of that journey. We do. All of us.
