What Is The Democratic World View?

[ruggerson]

There is an interesting post below by DeepModem Mom referencing a piece in Sunday's Times that explores how Democrats should position themselves thematically for the fall and for '08 in terms of our international role.

The Republican's new foreign policy dumbed down meme in this administration, begat by the neocons, is roughly thus: Americans are good, terrorists are bad and we must get them before they get us.

What is the Democrat's one liner that Americans will grasp and understand? What does our party stand for on the international stage?

What is the simple, dumbed down, one line theme that will make voters understand where we want to take the world?

[Finder]

1. Justice for ALL.

is what I would love to see.

[ruggerson]

3. What does that mean

in terms of America's role in the world? Are we to forcibly secure justice for everyone on the planet? It's not clear to me what to what you are referring.

What I'm asking for is a one or two liner that articulates, in easy to understand language, just what America's role in the world should be and how we should achieve it.

Justice for all, while an agreeable platitude, doesn't really address that.

[Finder]

5. I do think we should secure justice for all.

Diplomatically and economically of course, but forcibly if need be.

Don't get me wrong, I do not support doing it alone as some kind of police force. I mean working with others to assist and persuade all countries to become open societies.

The rhetoric coming from the opposition is anti-UN, anti-secular, and xenophobic.

[sandnsea]

2. Everything's Connected

On second thought...

Teresa Heinz Kerry:

The most amazing experience for me was to stand beneath the jungle canopy towering 120 feet overhead. It truly had the feeling and simplicity of a gothic cathedral. The trees were like pillars, often anchored by buttress-like roots. They grew in a mere six inches of soil. You couldn't help but wonder what sustained them, and then you looked at the ground and saw the interplay of mosses, ferns, mushrooms, insects and animals, and you began to understand the beauty and complexity and interdependence of life.

We are, all of us, like those trees. Even they depend on the kindness of strangers, and so it is for us.

No matter how high we may sometimes soar, no matter how invincible we may sometimes feel, we are all fed and nurtured and sustained by complex webs of connection. We all truly are in this together.

[POAS]

4. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that

all men are created equal"

That is the crux, that is the core.

[Uncle Joe]

6. We do not believe the American People or our memes

should be dumbed down anymore, the Republicans are for brainwashing, we are not. The Republicans and the MSM believe in keeping the people in a Matrix so as to make it easier to manipulate them, we do not, reality is complicated but sooner or later you have to deal with it. We believe in lifting the people up, the Republicans believe in tearing them down to their lowest common denominator. We believe in democracy and to be citizens of the world, the Republicans believe in empire and for us to be it's rulers. We believe empire is anathema to what our founding fathers believed in. The Republican ideal is a corporate ruled world with the President as CEO. If you think the current ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay (400 to 1 the last time I checked) is fair, just or economically wise, you will love the Republican program.

[ruggerson]

7. I agree with you

but we will keep losing elections if we don't come up with coherent, easy to understand messages.

You and I are political junkies. The average American is not. They want to grasp where a politician stands in easy to understand memes.

[Uncle Joe]

8. The sad thing is, my previous post seems pretty

cut and dry to me. I believe we are selling the American People short in their understanding of complex issues to their own detriment. The MSM for their own selfish, greedy agenda would have us believe otherwise, but that in and of it self is a call for major reform. These are the same people that made counting ballots in 2000 sound and look like rocket science, never mind that hand written ballots have been counted for over a hundred years. The messages we come up with are important, but the biggest message I think we could give to the people, would be for them to step out side of their comfort zone and expand their horizons. We, as a nation cannot afford to be ignorant, lazy minded provincial people anymore, this is not all we are, but it's what the MSM glorifies. If the people need a boogeyman to get motivated, give them China, because they will kick our ass in 30-40 years if our MSM does not take a long term view on the American People's capacity to understand and tolerate complex issues when in choosing our leaders. I do not believe the problem so much lies in the Democratic Party's ability to send a clear message so much as the MSM's willingness to report it.

[eallen]

9. Reality, not ideology.