Lessons of 112

Democrats need to define their positions based on clearly stated principles*, rather than a grab bag of issues. These principles should be defined in moral terms more than in logical terms. Everybody has principles they think are worth fighting and even dying for, and people want to know what ours are. Until we can explain them, they will never trust us. Until we can prove to them that they share those principles, they will not vote for us.

Americans want to feel good about themselves. Republicans lie to them and make them feel good. Democrats tell them the truth and make them feel bad. They vote for Republicans because they tell the sweetest lies.

Because we progressives are motivated by people rather than by profit; because we love truth more than we love to win, we have to figure out a way to tell the truth in a way that makes people feel good. It's not really as hard as it sounds. It may simply be a matter of creating a vision of how things could be if our nation was more just, more fair, more tolerant, more generous, more wise. Then we must hold to and promote that vision, despite the evidence that shows how both the Right and the Left have failed to deliver it thus far. Yes, we have to face harsh realities. But we don't have to try to sell them as the obvious failures they are. What do we have in mind that might be better? Sell that.

"It's morality, stupid"- Citizens from both ends of the economic spectrum voted against their economic interest on 112.
- Democrats need to define their positions based on clearly stated principles*, rather than a grab bag of issues. These principles should be defined in moral terms more than in logical terms. Everybody has principles they think are worth fighting and even dying for, and people want to know what ours are. Until we can explain them, they will never trust us. Until we can prove to them that they share those principles, they will not vote for us.
- Unyielding support for or against individual issues must yield -- to seeking common ground based on shared beliefs and yes, values.
- We have to quit talking to ourselves and start listening to those who disagree with us -- down to the seventh level of "why"
- Intolerance is intolerable -- even intolerance of perceived intolerance: it's impossible to change anyone's mind from the back of a high horse
- Educate, then legislate

* Principles (A List to be Modified)- Equal opportunity precedes equality of condition
- Fairness to all
- Free markets must be governed by fair competition
- Investing in success is smarter than spending on failure
- Focus on the best we have to offer
- We can be wise -- get the big picture before you start painting yourself into a corner
- Leverage applied in the right place is more effective than opposition applied just about anywhere else
- Programs that benefit society as a whole should be supported in proportion to an individual's benefit from that society
- Protection of individual liberties is the right and proper role of the judiciary
- The separation of church and state benefits religion more than removing those separations would benefit the state. (Evidence: check out the low rates of church attendance in all those European countries with state-sanctioned and -supported religions.)
- Corporations can survive without welfare programs from the government

And…any principle we don't think we can get a significant majority of the electorate to agree with should be revised -- or stricken from this list.

New Perspectives, New Strategies
Think of how you would filter any progressive issue through the lens of these principles: Minimum wage, welfare, health care, human rights in all their splendor. How far from "our" position would the resulting beam of light fall? Not far, I would hope! And how much easier would it be to "convert" others to our point of view if we emphasized our shared principles and helped them to see those issues from that perspective? Telling them they're wrong, they're stupid, they're bigoted and they're delusional clearly has not been effective so far.

I said recently that the (Oklahoma) Democratic Party was a majority party that acted like a minority party. Today, the national Democratic Party really IS the minority party. We have to quit trying to defeat them and start trying to win their hearts and minds. We're not going to change the world without changing those voters' consciousness. As well as our own.

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