The untapped strength of the party is here

[deignan]

Please let me preface this post with this: Winning has always been possible. In fact, 2000, 2002, 2004 should have been won outright. Many know this is true because they felt it. And there’s the paradox.

The political division of party activists in the US today divides most neatly not along lines of economics, social status, etc., but along personality. It turns out that there is truth to the anecdotal truism that Democrats are the party of feeling. Democrats care. Isn’t that true?

Is there one person here who believes that Democrats are the uncaring party? Unfeeling?


Well, there is some statistical truth to that. This past year I conducted a survey of Polipundit and dKos readers by the Myers-Briggs test. There are likely people here that participated. The amazing thing is that there was a statistically significant distinction between the personality types of self-described conservatives and liberals. The more partisan, the greater the difference. (details of the study and the results at www.info-theory.blogspot.com caveat: this site is intended to be analytical. You may disagree with some conclusions and hypotheses and that is OK)


There is an important implication here about winning. To win, we must know who we are and be able to articulate what we are about. The time has passed where this could be taken for granted. We must be able to articulate clearly the principles that drive us and make us feel the way that we feel -- the seminal motives upon which we rest our certainty of our own goodness. I believe that it follows that unless we are simply lying to ourselves, that we should then be able to convince others of the rightness of the primary motives. The rest is details of pragmatism.

So, the question is this, “Can we articulate those motives as guiding principles for a reformed party?” Winning follows.


What are our inviolable core principles?


Thanks again.

[MissMarple]

1. Protecting and nurturing the individual. .

Politically, I think government should promote the prosperity and well being of the individual to create a mature and stable population. Also, I am usually pragmatic, and I see this as insuring my own prosperity and well being if others are not destitute and uneducated members of a large underclass. So you could reach this conclusion either way, promoting a just society is good because it is the "right" or compassionate thing to do, it is also logical in that it protects the rights and well being of me and my family. Whether you come at it from "feeling" or from "thinking" it still works out.

Is that the kind of thing you mean?

Edited for clarity.

[txaslftist]

2. Equal opportunity for all.

[sellitman]

3. This is interesting but.......

It's all worthless unless we get control of the machines, stop Parisians from running the election at the state level and make Federal Elections the same experience under the same rules in every state in the Union. Until this happens NOTHING else matters. We won in 2000, we won in 2002 and we won in September.

:shrug:

[FightinNewDem]

6. Parisians?

What, the French are in on the deal now?


Good god, where will it all end!

[blondeatlast]

8. Well, that should give the RW Francophobes pause, indeed! nt

[Califooyah Operative]

4. About Democratic Values.

from myspace...
About Democratic Values.

You may have no clue what the democrats stand for, and that's probably because many democrats don't know how to explain what they stand for in words. I honestly believe that if we are to be able to communicate our values successfully, Americans abroad would realize which party is really on their side.

Democratic Values are Progressive. The overall goal of progressives is a united community-of America.

Democratic values consist of:

Caring and responsibility, carried out with strength.
Protection, fulfillment in life, fairness
Freedom, opportunity, prosperity.
Community, service, cooperation
Trust, honesty, open communication
These core values lead us to our principles of :

Equity
Equality
Democracy
Government for a better future
Ethical Business
Values-based foreign policy
These principles put into action by democrats across the nation translate into policy in the direction of:

Fair and equal access to employment, healthcare, education.
Protection of consumers, workers, retirees, investors, veterans...
A clean healthy environment and protection of natural wonders.
Security through military strength, strong diplomatic alliances, and wise foreign and domestic policy.
Open, effective, fair government.
Equal rights.
Progressive Democrats want a stronger America, broad prosperity, a better future, effective government, and mutual responsibility.

Much of the above outline is from George Lakoff's book "Don't think of an elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate"

[DaedelusNemo]

5. My try

The only excuse for government power is that it preserves and increases our freedom. Everyone is equal in the eyes of justice, and equal in their vote.

People are more important than money; our country should be one where you can improve your lot by working hard, and the truly needy are cared for.

In other words, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - the american dream, from the very beginning.

[mattclearing]

7. Inviolable Core Principles

Equal opportunity for all citizens is the central binding theme of the American experiment, and it must be maintained at every economic, social, and spiritual level.

The needs of the less wealthy many outweigh the wants of the wealthy few.

War against another nation must be provoked by that nation and is entered into only as a last resort when diplomacy has failed.

[blondeatlast]

9. Valuing the individual's contribution as an individual and

as part part of the community.

This covers civil rights, contributions to the community (taxes), and as an integral and necessary part of government.

We need to have a huge, grass roots level brainstorming session, then another huge editing session, and so on, until we define our message; then we build agendas and policies around it.

The Republicans did this 30+ years ago and we are seeing the dreadful effects of it now. We need to start ASAP.

[AmericanLiberal]

10. Great post-- the Democrats are the party of compassion

"We must be able to articulate clearly the principles that drive us and make us feel the way that we feel -- the seminal motives upon which we rest our certainty of our own goodness."

What a great post, deignan. That should be one of the best posts I've seen yet here.

You've already articulated what drives me personally to be in this party. Democrats are the party of feeling. Based on policy alone I would NOT be a Democrat. I'll be here because I see no difference between morality and compassion when it comes to politics. George Bush has to add "compassionate" to his conservatism only because conservatism is inherently anti-compassionate. Why else would he need to add the adjective to his label? He likes to talk about freedom. But I support freedom because I feel compassion for the oppressed. I support support equality because I feel compassion for the weak. And I support morality because I feel compassion for the wronged. The Democratic party has historically been, and still is, the party that cares more about protecting and advancing the less powerful and less established, and advancing the interests of all people based on need. This is what it needs to affirm most of all, and remember in any policy debate arena.

***
Separate rant:

If Republicans are not the party of compassion why are they the party of moral values? I'll tell you why, because the word morality has been completely twisted around by recent changes in American politics, just about the same time the Democrats started losing. What changed is that the progressive, liberal part of this country forgot that it is rooted on morality and compassion, and stopped believing in itself. This happened some time around 1970. I was not alive then, but I know that is when it happened. Up until 1970, American liberalism had always been about making things better. Perhaps at that time many liberals thought they had won all their causes. Perhaps they saw that large government programs weren't working as well as they hoped. Whatever it is that happened, one generation of liberal activists passed away, and another generation failed to take its place. Instead what happened is that liberalism splintered off into a series of interest groups, focusing on single issues such as the environment, minority and womens' rights, unions and workers' rights, welfare, etc etc. These became tied down in separate debates each with a separate philosophical justification on the liberal side. On the conservative side, on the other hand, a (seemingly) consistent philosophical justification was tried on each separate debate. Since conservatism was the only ideology that tried to apply a uniform philosophical system to all its policy debates, it was by definition of its behavior the only out of the two ideologies that could assume the mantle of morality. But, with the significant exception of belief in economic freedom from government interference, their connection with morality is specious, and the basic tenet of conservatism is and has always been strengthening the established and powerful, and opposite to, rather to aligned with, the basic idea of compassionate morality.

[Extremeleftwing]

11. These are our principles

These are the backone of our party. Individual rights. A voice for the voiceless. And respect in the eyes of the world. We had all of these things when Clinton was the President. All of these are gone now with Bush. It's time that we trumpet these core values from the mountaintop.

[Spinoza]

12. Surely the party of FDR

must also include as a core principle: fighting fascism.

[smiley_glad_hands]

13. I believe Democratic Values

are what we owe to ourselves and to each other and most importantly to our future. This essence of morality (for me anyway).