Series Introduction

This blog is a set of essays on values, vision, and issues that could be used in creating a Democratic message for western suburbia. It started with several brainstorming sessions among dozens of Democrats in south suburban Denver, and I've extended it with my own ideas.

Comments from anyone are welcome. There is no universal Democratic Party ideology, and never will be. Diversity is one of the important things we value, so another part of our value system has to be the means by which we reconcile diverging perspectives in order to make progress.

Values are important to voters, because in a changing world and the give-and-take of legislative process, the public needs to know how politicians will respond to unexpected events and processes of negotiation. A simplified message isn’t necessarily simple-minded. We generally don’t trust politicians to keep specific promises, so we don’t listen much to their specific policy ideas. However, if a politician clearly describes a vision and direction, we tend to have more confidence that he or she will at least work in that direction.

The orientation here is long-term, thinking about what it will take for the Democratic Party to become representative of a broad cross-section of America. I want to express a consistent vision and set of values shared by a much larger majority of Americans, and think of ways to use the political process to turn the vision into reality by means of the Democratic Party.

I am going to slay a few sacred cows in these essays, because I think the Democratic Party needs to discard some obsolete orthodoxy in order to stay true to its core values in a changing world. Interest groups that are essential to the party infrastructure promote a pure, unhedged perspective because that is their job, and they do it well. What I object to is the weakness of politicians in their unwillingness or inability to challenge extreme views and find a principled balance, which is what most ordinary Americans do in their own minds. Maybe these essays will help with that.

Democrats didn’t want a culture war, and voters sometimes interpret that as a lack of concern about a number of major problems in our culture. We are very concerned, but we haven’t been very effective at doing anything about it. The Republican culture war hasn’t been effective either, as history will show. It’s essential that we find a better way, and it starts with having a better definition of the problem and a better vision for the future.

George Bush won in 2004 by communicating a vision, and we lost by not communicating ours. Democrats can do better, and the aim here is to show how.