To be clear, the challenge for Democrats is not their policies, which are far more popular than the GOPs free-market ideology. People much prefer the Affordable Care Act and Medicare-for-All to Republicans efforts to stop government from helping people get health care, for example. President Joe Bidens $2 trillion climate plan has more than 60 percent support as he takes office. And although increasing corporate tax rates is slightly under water in terms of its popularity, it has more support than the Republicans 2017 tax bill did.
The challenge for Democrats, rather, is rhetorical. If Americans prize freedom more than equality, Democrats need to find the right words to convince people to support equality-furthering policies. With such a tenuous grip on both parts of Congress and without Trump as an easy foil to turn out Democrats base and turn independent voters away from the GOP, the success of the partys long-term agenda and their hold on power will depend on their doing so. It also might just help unify the party in the process.
***
The parties respective relationships to the values of freedom and equality take on different forms. Republicans have made freedom front-and-center to most every political conversation, from saying any limitation of gun rights is a disregard for freedom to framing critiques of government-run health care around the danger these program would pose to Americans freedom. In the GOPs telling, it is the defender of Americans freedom from Democratic attacks.
The Democrats relationship to equality is more complex. During the Civil Rights Era, Democrats became the party of rights and equality as activists marched through the streets demanding justice for Black Americans. The party passed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act while Republicans rallied around the anti-rights, anti-equality messaging of Barry Goldwater. Democrats also launched the Great Society, an effort to alleviate the suffering and economic inequity that affected millions of Americans.
In the decades that followed, the party largely abandoned the language of and commitment to equality. Calls for equal rights and a fairer economy were replaced with Bill Clintons freedom-driven Third Way and an insistence on the power of markets and opportunity. In choosing freedom rather than equality as the partys defining value for a time, the Democrats helped Republicans define the political conversation for decades.
Even today, the party avoids explicitly owning equality as their defining value. The partys leadership and voters rejected Bernie Sanders, the most explicitly pro-equality candidate in decades, in the primary despite the popularity of much of his agenda, while many of Democrats in purple states, like Mark Kelly, ran on pro-tax cut agendas. Biden, in his inaugural speech, did not mention equality as a defining value for his agenda or for the country.
But essentially all of the partys current goalshealth care for all, workers rights, voting rights, equal rights for women and members of the LGBTQ community, lowering student debt and college tuition, an economy and justice system free of systemic racismwould further equality. And achieving these goals without significant political backlash depends upon people believing in equality as a core American value.
Of course, the choice between equality and freedom is on some level a false one. For freedom to exist there must be a baseline of equality. But these values are often treated as in competition in American political discoursein the debates about taxation to address income inequality, and religious freedom versus the obligation to serve LGBTQ individuals equally, for example. And most Americans I met, both Republicans and Democrats alike, reserved their most aspirational words and beliefs for just one of them: freedom.
Terri, the owner of a Christian candle shop in Waukesha, Wisc., exemplified the celebration of freedom that was common in my interviews. I feel very blessed to be an American, she said. It means freedomfreedom of religion, freedom of choice, freedom of speech. Dolly, a self-described Trump-lover in Pittsburgh told me, This, to me, is the greatest country on Earth. This is the country of freedom.
That Republicans would use this language was not surprising. But this rhetoric appeared in conversations with Democrats, too. Take Taj, a Sudanese refugee from Dubuque, Iowa. Though Taj declined to share whom he voted for in 2016, our conversation suggested that his politics lean left. When I asked what he sees as Americas core values, he told me, This country works well for me because of the liberty. He also discussed how the founders created a world that didnt exist yetin terms of freedom of speech. In fact, most anyone who mentioned the Founding mentioned only freedom as a founding ideal.
Melvin, then and still a city council member in Jackson, Miss., is the type of person Democrats might expect to prize equality as much as freedom. Melvin, who is Black, is a staunch Democrat who spoke at length about the need for change in America. He grew up in Jackson, attended Harvard, and returned to serve his community in a deep red state.
When I asked Melvin what it means to be an American, he told me a sense of optimism, a belief in rightsa potential nod to equality, though revealing that he didnt use the word itselfand the law, and a certain pride. Core to all of those and to American life? Freedom. He said: I believe that being an American means you believe in freedom or liberty, even if you disagree with other peoples use of them.
National polling suggests my anecdotal observations were not a coincidence. The Atlantic and the Aspen Institute undertook an American values survey in 2012 in which they asked people, among other questions, Which, if any of these factors, do you think contributes to America having stronger values than other places in the world? Participants were asked to select all the ideas listed that applied. Fifty percent of over 2,000 respondents cited Principles of equality, tied with free enterprise and the system laid out in our Constitution for third. Ranking ahead of it? Freedom of speech with 67 percent and freedom of religion with 61 percent.
***
But my interviewsand policy shifts over the past several yearsindicate that there might be a way for the Democrats to rebuild the partys and build the countrys rhetorical and philosophical commitment to equality while also helping their policies popularity and candidates electoral chances in 2022. That path requires Democrats to focus on two values that my conversations suggest are still widely embraced and also are essential parts of an enduring national commitment to equality: fairness and community.
Fairness is an ideal central to the American Dream. The notion that every American deserves a fair shot at a better life was frequently seen as a foundational part of American society in my conversations, even among conservatives I met. By focusing on fairness, Democrats can move an equality-driven agenda forward while simultaneously providing a popular competing ideal to Republicans arguments about economic and legal freedom.
When it comes to civil rights, the sense that our justice system has not been working fairly led majorities in both parties to say in 2018 that they supported prison and sentencing reforms. Voters act on this belief, too: In Florida in 2018, more than 60 percent of people voted to restore former felons voting rights. In a country whose criminal justice system is still in many ways defined by systemic racism, emphasizing legal fairness may well be a pathway to broader discussions of societal equality.
The idea that there should be a degree of economic fairness has broad support, too. Even as Florida voted for Trump this cycle, its voters also supported a ballot measure for a $15 minimum wage, while a wealth taxa way to ensure the wealthiest Americans pay their sharehas support from even a near majority of Republicans. And when it comes to health care, Americans believe that every American should have a baseline of care: At least 70 percent of Americans approve of a Medicare for All who want it-type plan. An appeal to the idea that every American needs certain things to build a better life can move the needle for Democrats against Republican policies and rhetoric.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, Democrats need to affirm the importance of community. More Americans will believe everyone deserves political and economic security and equality when they see one another as members of the same political community.
Community was the only ideal that came up in more of my interviews than freedom. Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs talked about how good citizenship means serving ones community and about how their communities are struggling and need help. Polling suggests this trend is consistent nationwide: More than 60 percent of Americans say community involvement is very important to them. And policies that strengthen community foundations like public internet and infrastructure investment hold broad appeal, too.
The challenge to using the idea of community to build political coalitions is that many people see their community as those who are only like them. On my travels, many white Americans implied immigrants and Black Americans need to assimilate for communities and the country to thrive. This isnt surprising given Americas history of racism and anti-immigrant sentiments. Nor is it surprising that many people I met believed members of the other party would not see them as good Americans given increased inter-party animosity.
The Democrats task then, if they want to build a deep and broad support for equality, is to expand more voters notion of the American community. In his 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama declared, There is not a liberal America and a conservative Americathere is the United States of America. Democrats need to revive this sort of rhetoric, not to win empty points for bipartisanship from pundits, but because appealing to a shared sense of community will help them connect with Americans now and increase support for equality-based messages and policies later.
For Democrats, there would likely be short-term benefits to these new rhetorical and policy focuses given the work both wings of the party need to do. Moderate Democrats need to rebuild the credibility they lost in failing to fight for equality and need to find a defining message. The left wing of the party needs to develop a strategy to build long-term, wider-spread support for their ideas. Fairness and community may well be the ideals that unite the partys two wings rhetorically, give the party a clear identity and sustain popularity for their policies. If Biden wants to heal the soul of the nation and build back better, he has a place to start.
Original post:
Democrats Have a Values Problem. But Heres How They Can Fix It. - POLITICO
- David Ditch: Uncle Sam is picking your pocket with high taxes Democrats want to raise them even higher - Fox News [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- 2020 Democrats are naming their fundraising 'bundlers' - Columbian.com - The Columbian [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- Democrats Sparred Over a Wine Cave Fund-Raiser. Its Billionaire Owner Isnt Pleased. - The New York Times [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- Education Spending: What Democratic Candidates Want vs. Reality, in Charts - Education Week [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- Democratic leadership should be afraid of McKayla Wilkes - The Week [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- Editorial: Democrats are pushing the right fix to a Trump tax law - San Francisco Chronicle [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- The biggest state feels the most excluded in the Democratic race - CNN [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- Illinois provides the Democrats with a Midwestern base: The Flyover - cleveland.com [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- Mike Bloomberg is trying to convince big-money Democratic donors that he can win in 2020, even though he isn't taking their money - CNBC [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- Wine Caves and Purity Tests in Democratic Politics - The New York Times [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- House GOP vows to use impeachment to cut into Democratic majority | TheHill - The Hill [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- Democrats Who Flipped Seats in 2018 Have a 2020 Playbook: Focus on Drug Costs - The New York Times [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- A decade of Obamacare: How health care went from wrecking to boosting Democrats - CNBC [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- Democrats need to accept these 3 truths to beat Trump in 2020 - CNBC [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- What if Democrats Tried Real Outreach? - The New York Times [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- Impeachment moved nobody but threatens trouble for Democrats | TheHill - The Hill [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- Top Democrats Say They Support the Iran DealBut Here's How They've Undermined It - In These Times [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- Democrats Future Is Moving Beyond the Rust Belt - The Atlantic [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- Why The Most Coveted Democratic Endorser In Iowa Isn't Picking Sides - NPR [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- He Was Cruising in a G.O.P. Primary. Then Trump Endorsed an Ex-Democrat. - The New York Times [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- The Odd Couples of the Democratic Party - The New York Times [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- Prominent House Republican Doug Collins walks back his insistence that Democrats are in love with terrorists - MarketWatch [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- The Weekly | Vetting the 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates - The New York Times [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- 'Deeply disturbing': 'Gang of Eight' Democrats shocked by report on Russians hacking Burisma - Washington Examiner [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- Like, Ill Tune In When Theres Two Weeks Left: Why Trump Has a Huge Advantage Over Dems With Low-Information Voters - Vanity Fair [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- The Coalition of the Ascendant Rejects Candidates of Color - National Review [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- Whats on TV Tuesday: Leslie Jones and the Democratic Debate - The New York Times [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- Who will win New Hampshire? 5 top state Democrats dish on the state of play - POLITICO [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- Democrat Klobuchar on diversity and taking on Trump in the 2020 presidential race - Reuters [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- Democratic Party Leaders Are Mostly Sitting Out The Endorsement Race So Far - FiveThirtyEight [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- Twelve Democrats, three Republicans in U.S. presidential race - Reuters [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- 'It's a sad day': As Booker exits Democratic primary, a once-historic field gets less diverse - USA TODAY [Last Updated On: January 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2020]
- Live Updates And Analysis: January Democratic Debate In Iowa - NPR [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Biden is the Democrats' 'only hope' to defeat Trump | TheHill - The Hill [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Why Andrew Yang Has Endured While Traditional Democratic Candidates Have Not - National Review [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Opinion | Winners and Losers of the Democratic Debate - The New York Times [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Tucker Carlson: Democrats want US to be more like California -- the state that's driving residents away - Fox News [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Meet the Democrats prosecuting Trump's impeachment - POLITICO [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Liberals make up the largest share of Democratic voters, but their growth has slowed in recent years - Pew Research Center [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Who Won The January Democratic Debate? - FiveThirtyEight [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- The War For The Democratic Party Will Destroy Lives, Change The US - The Federalist [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Hillary Clinton on whom she thinks 2020 Democratic voters should nominate - ABC News [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Democrats Take a Walk on the Mild Side - POLITICO [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Democrats should put an end to caucuses - Boston Herald [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Kimberley Strassel: Why is the 2020 Democratic primary field littered with the failed bids of woke candidates? - Fox News [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- DCCC: Democrats tout fundraising advantage in 2020 congressional elections - CBS News [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Oregon Democrats, Republican bristle over possibility of another GOP shutdown - OregonLive [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Democrats Should Be Worried About the Latino Vote - The Atlantic [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Woke doesnt win and other big surprises of Democrats 2020 race so far - New York Post [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Democratic lawmaker dismisses GOP lawsuit threat: 'Take your letter and shove it' | TheHill - The Hill [Last Updated On: January 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 18th, 2020]
- Cotton: Democrats are 'upset that their witnesses haven't said what they want them to say' | TheHill - The Hill [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- WATCH: Pistol Grips A 'Weapons Of War' Feature? Virginia Democrat Trying To Ban Guns Gives 6-Minute Speech, Gets EVERYTHING Wrong About Guns - The... [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- Tom Cotton: Democrats haven't proven impeachment case, don't need to 'prolong' things - Washington Times [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- What Chicagos Mayor Really Thinks About the Democratic Field - The Atlantic [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- Impeachment: Democrats reject witness swap in Trump trial - BBC News [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- Democrat House impeachment manager inadvertently admits what impeachment is actually about - TheBlaze [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- Poll Results Put Andrew Yang Back On The Democratic Debate Stage - NPR [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- 12 States Where Democrats Could Flip the Senate - The Nation [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- Facebook is worried about Democrats winning the presidential election - Axios [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- Democrats, Republicans tussle over witnesses as vote approaches | TheHill - The Hill [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- Democrats cry foul over Schiff backlash | TheHill - The Hill [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- 5 Things We Learned Interviewing 2020 Democrats (Again) - The New York Times [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- 'Didn't answer the second part of my question': Buttigieg grilled by anti-abortion Democrat - Washington Examiner [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- A Major Fear for Democrats: Will the Party Come Together by November? - The New York Times [Last Updated On: January 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: January 27th, 2020]
- Who Will Win the Democratic Primary? Our New Prediction Model Says - OZY [Last Updated On: February 3rd, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2020]
- Democrats' History Of Intimidating SCOTUS Justices Carries Over Into Impeachment - The Federalist [Last Updated On: February 3rd, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2020]
- Impeachment has proved the Democrats are no longer democrats - The Spectator USA [Last Updated On: February 3rd, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2020]
- As Other Democrats Feud, Bloomberg Hammers Trump on Health Care - The New York Times [Last Updated On: February 3rd, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2020]
- The Humbling of Democrats in Texas - The Atlantic [Last Updated On: February 3rd, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2020]
- 2020 Democrats Are Already Giving Up on Congress - The Atlantic [Last Updated On: February 3rd, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2020]
- Iowa Democrats fear losing first-in-the-nation status - POLITICO [Last Updated On: February 3rd, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2020]
- Chris Matthews expresses worries: Democrats 'need to find' candidate who can beat Trump | TheHill - The Hill [Last Updated On: February 3rd, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2020]
- Are the Democrats Completely Screwing This Up? - Rolling Stone [Last Updated On: February 3rd, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2020]
- House Democrat to bring Khashoggi's fiance to State of the Union | TheHill - The Hill [Last Updated On: February 3rd, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2020]
- Democrats Had a 2020 Vision. This Isnt Quite What They Expected. - The New York Times [Last Updated On: February 3rd, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 3rd, 2020]
- Democrats Counter Trump on Health Care and Condemn His Conduct - The New York Times [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2020]
- Democratic senators press Amazon over injury rates | TheHill - The Hill [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2020]
- James Carville Rages Over State of Dem Party: 'I'm Scared to Death!' - The Daily Beast [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2020]
- As Democrats Try to Move On From the Caucus Chaos - The New York Times [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2020]
- The Harrowing Chaos of the Democratic Primary - The New York Times [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2020]