Democrats are boring. Democrats are the Middle of the Road. What everyone seems to forget in an election season is: The Middle of the Road is where most of us live.
* Most of us are not extremists -- on either side.
* Most of us are not rich.
* Most of us are not famous.
* Most of us work for a living.
* Most of us are raising families.
* Most of us go to church.
Most of us just want to be left to live our lives and don't really care what other people do as long as they don't try to hurt us or our families.
We pay taxes to the government to handle the things we can't or don't want to handle for ourselves. Over the decades, we've come to define the responsibilities of government so that they benefit most of us reasonably well. We expect:
A military -- not to invade other countries and spread democracy across the globe -- but to protect us and our families here at home.
Someone to keep an eye on the land and water so it is safe and there for us when we want it.
Someone to keep an eye on our food so someone doesn't use profit as a motive to cut corners that make our children sick.
Someone to keep our roads and bridges and sewers and electricity in decent shape, so we can get where we need to go and do what we need to do, and so business can thrive and we can work.
And we've asked government to provide a safety net so that, should everything fall apart in our lives, we can still get food and water and shelter and care of at least the most basic sort. Because no matter which of our feet -- left or right -- is off the center line, we cannot begin to imagine what life would really be like if there were nothing to help us if we found ourselves with nothing.
Democrats stand for these things. Republicans do not.
These things are boring. Essential, but boring. They're not gay marriage. They're not terrorism. They're not democracy on the march or pornography or part of the eternal struggle between good and evil.
We believe the Republicans when they tell us that overwhelming evil lurks at every turn ready to destroy our lives and our families. That stuff is exciting and scary and urgent.
The things that really count -- the truth of our lives -- are so mundane that we don't even see their critical nature. We believe we are defending what's most important to us even as we hand it over to those who want to see it destroyed. We don't seem to understand that when the Republicans focus -- and focus us -- on those exciting, scary things, they at best ignore the important, ordinary things and at worst, work to take them away from us.
It's time we recognized that this is not what we pay our government to do and it is not what we value most in the world. It is time to realize that what we want more than anything are the most boring things -- the most ordinary, important, life-giving things -- and that those are the things Democrats stand for and those are the things Democrats are good at.
Democrats shouldn't need a "plan" to be relevant. Democrats shouldn't need to constantly remind people that our lives are not about the things Republicans fuss over. But maybe we do have to remind people.
When Democrats are in charge, the things that affect us most dearly are watched over with care. These things are the values we all agree on: home, family, church, work, safety, privacy, freedom.
Democrats should not be afraid to be boring and they should not cede the "Middle of the Road" to extremists on either side. It's time to stand up and be proud to be boring ...
and competent...
and caring...
and American.