So I was at my mother's 80th birthday party the other day talking to my cousin and fellow Kossak Houndcat about the problems the Democratic Party faces in trying to win national elections and my thoughts have begun to come together. You the lucky reader get to be the recipient of my mental largess, for what it's worth.
There's been an increasing amount of chatter in the progressive blogosphere lately about the need for the Democratic Party to come up a vision that will attract voters, and many smart people have identified "serving the common good" as that vision. I agree, but these early ruminations about a national vision do not go far enough. We need to present coherent policy goals that fit seamlessly into the theme of providing for the common good. Be patient and allow me to explain at some length. This is something that I've been thinking about for some time and my thoughts are beginning to cohere.
More below the fold.
At present, there is a national perception of the Democratic Party as being a party of many conflicting narrow interests. We all know this to be true; just talk to your republican-leaning family, friends or neighbors. Democrats are seen as a collection of special interest groups, all competing for their own rights. Minority rights, women's rights, gay rights, and so on. These are all good and worthy goals but obscure what should be the true purpose of the Democratic Party - ensuring that all Americans get a fair shake in life both socially and economically. The average Johnny Nascar voter thinks, and rightfully so, that the Democrats don't stand for his interests. Mr. and Mrs. Nascar aren't thrilled, and so they vote their "gut" which is often wrong.
We need to convince all the Johnny Nascars out there that we are in their corner, and that we DO have their best interests at heart. We need to stifle the cacophony of competing voices within our own party who see politics as their own private battleground. We need to bring Americans together under a vision that is both compelling and moral. Working for the common good is that vision. We need to reach these people in their gut because that is how they vote.
But how do we do this? What IS the common good? And who decides what this common good is? More liberal elitists? More environmentalists or rights activists? More Washington DC insiders who think they know what's best? No.
Defining the Common Good
I define the common good as that which positively affects the largest number of people. I think most people believe this in their gut - after all, doesn't everyone know the phrase "United We Stand"? We all pulled together after 9-11 - that was for the common good, wasn't it? We need to bring people back to that most fundamental of American principles. The common good means that everyone works together toward a common goal. The common good means that we are all in this thing, this democracy, together, and if don't work together as a nation, as a state, as a region, as a community, as a neighborhood, then we are lost. We need all the Johnny and Jane Nascars out there to believe in the country again, to believe in the power of large numbers of people working together to make things better.
We must define the common good in terms that the average voter understands. Our party shouldn't define the common good. It should be presented as an inherent basic American value and in fact, it is. When we suffered through a protracted economic depression, it was people working together on public works projects that brought new hope. When industry forced brutal working conditions on their employees, it was people working together in labor unions that helped stopped those oppressive practices. When we faced awful enemies during WWII, it was people working and fighting together at home and abroad that defeated the forces of evil. When natural disasters strike, it is people working together that helps save families and neighborhoods and churches. And after 9-11, everyone pulled together spiritually. This is the America that the Democrats need to stand for. This is the real America. These values are part of our heritage, it's part of us. We need to formulate policies within this moral framework. And we need to repeat it and sell it constantly. United we stand.
Policies for the Common Good
There are generally two areas of public policy that we entrust to our national government - domestic policy and foreign policy. All policies flow from one or the other. What are the big issues that most Americans care about? The rising cost of health care. The war in Iraq. The dwindling supply of cheap energy. Job opportunity and security. Safety in a dangerous world. And most of all, a promising future for our children. I propose that the Democratic Party present comprehensive but simple to understand policies that address the largest issues in both domestic and foreign policy arenas. These are: Energy and Health Care.
Energy as Foreign Policy
Why energy? Because our entire foreign policy is and has been based on the need to control or have ready access to oil for more than half a century. We are involved in the Middle East precisely because of oil. Deny it if you will, but it is true. I imagine a foreign policy freed from the need to control Middle East oil. I imagine a world in which the most dangerous of international criminals, terror-wielding religious extremists, have no reason to attack us. They hate us because we are parked in their back yards, because our need for oil forces us to support the repressive regimes ruling their own countries. I am not advocating isolationism; I am advocating a shift in our global persona. We can be the world leader once again who can be trusted to sit down and help people work out their differences. If we get zero oil from the region, we will gain back our international credibility. This dream requires that we begin the national switch from oil to alternate fuels immediately. It means moving from driving big gas-guzzling automobiles to linking communities together by modern mass transit. It means investing in new energy technologies, which would surely create new jobs and economic opportunities. It means challenging the authority of the petrochemical and energy industries and bringing them into the discussion of the common good by offering them first dibs on these new energies.
We need to personalize this issue so Americans can understand it, believe it, and take it to heart. Tired of paying five dollars a gallon for gas? Tired of sitting in long stressful traffic jams getting to and from work? Tired of seeing our young people get blown up in some faraway desert just to secure dwindling supplies of oil? Then we must all work together to move away from an oil-based energy policy. If we do not work together, we will not be able to fix these problems that affect each and every citizen.
Health Care as Domestic Policy
Health care reform must be the centerpiece of the Democratic Party's domestic agenda. The current system is broken, we all know it. I have a unique perspective on this as I have been both an employee of large medical insurance companies and a patient. Many of us are aware of the facts and figures - some 46+ million Americans without health insurance, whose frequent visits to emergency rooms cost many times as much as visits to personal physicians and that all insured people pay for through increasing premiums and co-pays, public health metrics that put the United States behind most other developed countries, increasing costs and decreasing access to medical care, and the power of the insurance industry to set national policy.
But why is health care the most important part of our domestic policy? Because the effects of the current broken system affect EVERYONE and continue to be an increasing drag on our national economy. Individuals rich and poor, employers large and small; states, cities and towns - all are affected negatively by the current system. We already have a working national heath care plan - Medicare. Our taxes pay for it. It is efficient. It works. Why not expand Medicare to cover all Americans? Working people already pay for their health care, either through payroll deductions for premiums, co-pays after receiving medical care, or both. And industry is increasingly hamstrung by the need to pay for their workers' medical insurance, which drives up the costs of doing business and drives down the amount of money available to create new technologies and jobs. Everyone except the insurance and pharmaceutical industries are in favor of national health care. We need to relieve employers of the burden of providing medical insurance and convince all Americans that it is in everyone's health and economic interest to support such a program.
Again, we need to personalize this issue. Tired of staying in bad jobs because you're afraid of losing your health insurance? Tired of having to make difficult budget decisions due to medical problems that aren't covered by your insurance? Tired of having NO insurance? Employers, are you tired of paying through the nose for your employees' medical benefits? Wish you had more money to invest in your business? Doctors and hospitals, are you tired of having to navigate through a maze of complex insurance industry rules and regulations? Imagine the enormous economic boom we will experience when employers have more money to invest in job-creating business activities. National health care will solve these problems, but only if we work together toward the common good.
Taxes versus Investment
So how do get people to overcome their aversion to the idea of paying for things through taxes? By not calling them taxes. In order to work for the common good; that is, in everyone's collective best interests, we need to convince people that part being for the common good means investing in each other. We use taxation as the means of investing in our country's defense, infrastructure, public education, disaster relief, and more. Most people do this willingly because they understand that defense and infrastructure and disaster relief and the like are important elements of the common good. So is health care. The Democratic Party must frame this as not simply more taxes to pay for narrow special interests, but as a way to invest in each other, in each other's communities, in our nation. This is a positive thing I think; most voters are looking for a positive vision for our country. What could be more moral and ethical than looking out for the other guy a little? It is the basis of virtually all major religious teaching. People believed this once, they can again.
So that's my rather lengthy and rambling take on the common good as a vision for this country. I'll let smarter folks handle the details, which aren't so important in the initial salesmanship of this vision. What is important is to remind Americans what we believe in, and that no matter what, United We Stand. And there's the campaign slogan for our national TV spots.
United we stand. Divided we fall. It's a no-brainer.