A CNN poll released Dec. 26 revealed that 64 percent of Americans feel that America is facing a moral decline. It's an opinion that cuts across political fault lines. Religious conservatives make up no more than 15-20 percent of the electorate, so clearly there are a great many Americans out there, besides religious conservatives, who understand the moral and ethical decay that is so prevalent in this country right now. From corrupt CEOs, to an administration that every days tells the public that black is white, to athletes on steroids, to our utter lack of respect for the environment, we are buried in evidence of our moral and ethical decline.
Virtually every Democrat I know here in northern Minnesota, shares this attitude and sees it as a serious, if not fundamental, problem for the country.
The question is: why do Democrats keep their doubts such a deep, dark secret?
Two-thirds of Americans agree that our culture is in serious decline, and Democrats have steadfastly refused to talk about it. The same is not so of Republicans and their conservative religious followers, who continuously make inroads with voters because they are the only side that is willing to address this issue.
Worst of all, because the Democrats are unwilling to engage in this fundamental discussion, we have allowed the Republicans and religious conservatives to set the terms of the debate. Moral decline in their book equals gay marriage, abortion, and the products of Hollywood. When the Democrats fail to offer an alternative analysis of what really ails our country's spirit, and provide an agenda which addresses our shortcomings in a meaningful way, we leave ourselves unilaterally disarmed in the culture war.
The Democrats must begin to talk in a significant way about the country's cultural decline and present an agenda that truly seeks to value people. It can't be half-hearted or merely political tactics. The Democrats need to sincerely call for moral and spiritual renewal.
Before any of you get weak-kneed, I don't define that in the same terms as a Pat Robertson or James Dobson. The Democrats should call on their fellow Americans to become real citizens again, to value fairness and honesty again, to talk about caring and about enabling each of us to reach our full potential. We need to talk about sacrifice, honor, and the importance of respect and that needs to be reflected in an all-encompassing agenda intended to renew America and empower citizens.
Howard Dean touched on some of this in his primary campaign, and he ignited a huge number of formerly disaffected Democrats out there, myself included. I was drawn to Dean because he really seemed to be trying to challenge us as Americans to do more and to be better. I felt almost nothing towards the other Democratic candidates, because they avoided this real debate.
When Kerry or Edwards promised "hope is on the way" they were talking about a child tax credit or a health care plan. While these are important issues and would be part of an agenda that values people again, they don't resonate with Americans who feel that our country's problems go far beyond any individual policy position. If individual policies had mattered in this past election, Kerry would have won in a landslide.
We need to talk about the deficit. Most parents try to leave an inheritance for their children. Yet as a nation, we will leave our children a massive inheritance of our own debt. It's moral failure.
We need to talk about our economy. We can't have a society that values people when our economic system devalues people. We need to question the Washington "consensus" and its unquestioning faith in the free market. The mechanism of the market is a valuable tool, but by itself it has no intelligence and no conscience. It values only profits, even as it destroys lives, communities, and the environment. Most Americans understand this, if only at a gut level, but neither party, is willing to talk about it. As long as most Washington Democrats are purveyors of the free market faith, they won't be able to talk honestly about valuing people again.
We need to talk about honesty in government. The current Republican leadership is the most corrupt collection of con men to sit in Washington in generations. We are lied to constantly by the administration, yet the Democrat's chief strategists say we can't talk about it. They had a national convention where they weren't allowed to criticize Republican corruption and lies.
We need to talk about abortion, because we can't simply ignore it while the right ceaselessly pounds on the issue. A society that truly valued people would have little need for abortion and that should be our goal. But there will always be cases where abortion is a sensible choice, and we must defend the right of a woman to make it for herself. But the left needs to recognize that when they are seen as opposing any limitation on abortion, many Americans view them as favoring abortion. The left needs to acknowledge openly that abortion is a symptom of problems in society, such as sexual violence and lack of choices for many women, and should seek areas of common ground with reasonable elements within the anti-choice movement to support positive alternatives to abortion. Abortion shouldn't be a first choice, but it must remain a choice.
We need to talk about gay marriage. I'm sorrry but I refuse to believe that most Americans, if they truly understood this issue, wouldn't come to support the concept. A sizable majority of Canadians, who really aren't that different from Americans, now support same-sex marriage. I believe it's because they have a major political party there that has been willing to make the argument for it. We don't have that in this country. A society that values people would support gay marriage, because we would want to help all people reach fulfillment and happiness in their lives. Americans don't hear the other side of this argument, because the Democrats are too afraid of it.
There are many more issues that would be part of such an agenda. Ideas?