New Democrats
Mix-up alert: This post is intended for Monday, March 24.
The last time I looked at a piece of political theory was freshman year at the University of Michigan. That was right before the Great Yucatan Meteor. Dinosaurs were dying all around me.
And I was dying of excruciating boredom. There was nothing there that felt juicy and alive, and certainly nothing that satisfied my yen for frivolity. I wanted to read something with stilts and a wig, something that I had never seen before. Instead I got “consent of the governed.” It’s a great phrase, I’ll admit, but it’s no Blue Man Group.
I still have that longing for stilts and a wig, but we are in dire straits and I am determined to save us. I just read a great little tract called Democrats 101. It even sounds like a class from my freshman year. In it, J.M. Purvis tries to connect with eternal truths. What binds us together as members of the transformational party that first powerfully expressed itself with Franklin Delano Roosevelt?
He makes good points about our tendency to foreground policy as a way of mobilizing millions of voters. He knows, as we do, that it always fails. People are led by gusts of emotion. But he says that we need to start talking about values. Great big ideas like justice for all.
I’m a birthright Democrat, so that makes sense to me, but Purvis’ language feels airy and abstract. Even though I’m a marginal man, writing in retirement from a provincial city, I think I could punch things up just a bit. You want principles? I’ve got principles:
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Democrats believe in the power of capitalism as an engine of progress and innovation. But we also believe that it needs to be tempered by considerations of fairness and the common good.
Democrats believe in the sanctity of the self. If it happens in my body, it belongs to me. All my decisions have to be freely chosen. No one can dictate policies of love or procreation.
Government in human life is a positive good. Like capitalism, it needs to be constrained so that it interferes with human freedom as little as possible. But there is no better instrument for ensuring safety and community.
Democrats believe in the dignity of all persons, especially those who evoke the hostility of others. Every reasonable safeguard should be enacted on their behalf.
Human life is a constellation of domains. Some, like taxes, are the proper concern of government. Some like religion, must remain separate and apart, except when perversions of religious belief threaten the life and safety of others.
Human life is sacred, even if you are non-believer. That is a way of saying that it has the highest value. Health care is a sacred responsibility of society and it should never be withheld from even the poorest citizen.
It is legitimate to pursue the wellbeing of the nation even when it conflicts with the well-being of others. But the goal is to pursue a foreign policy which acknowledges and honors the values of the nation and protects the idea of an international community.
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Let me pause here to catch my breath. I’ve given these matters about 10 minutes of thought, which guarantees they won’t add up to much. But I offer them as questions and, beyond that, provocations. If you were developing a recruitment tool for the Democratic Party, what seven principles would you announce to the world?