Who can come up with the best, most succinct statement of our liberal values?
A few weeks ago we had my son's Republican-leaning college debate team over for dinner and a structured discussion to understand the foundations of each other's political beliefs. In preparing for this event, I found that most of my liberal beliefs can be captured by a three word sentence, and almost all the rest can be captured in a single word.
1. Mistrust of power
2. Responsibility
See my explanations, below, but I would be interested in seeing someone can come up with something even better
MISTRUST OF POWER
Many of the government policies I favor are to correct for potential abuses by those who have too much power. Examples include government regulation of industry, environmental protection, campaign financing, and even affirmative action. We owe it to the corporations who play by the rules to make sure that they are not undercut by the companies that bend and break the rules. This also drives the importance of tolerance and personal freedom - in a country of almost 300 million there will be dangerously different individuals, but we must also be very wary of government imposing restrictions based on the mood of the electorate (or the representatives the last round of voters selected), because over our history the "mood of the electorate" has not always been a good or consistent judge of what is right. There should be rigorous checks and balances on government itself.
RESPONSIBILITY
We all have responsibilities to our family, our community, to other Americans, and to the other people in the world. Another vacation home or boat that a wealthy person can afford due to recent Republican tax breaks is not as important as the health care for 20 people that the same money could buy. You could push this too far - but we are nowhere close to the right level (I'm in the upper 2% for income according to my latest tax forms, and I should be paying more). All American citizens of voting age should be held to be responsible for the actions of our elected government - in a functioning democracy the people get the government they deserve. In foreign policy, I believe that the American government should value American lives more highly than the lives of people in other countries, but all lives in the world have value.