It's about values. Not the "values" of anti-gay, anti-abortion, or anti-evolution (when did that become a family value?). But true Democratic values, the values we as Democrats hold dear. The values we haven't articulated enough, haven't focused on enough, while check-list issues politics have dominated our party.
The pundits have tried to figure out what "issues" are really driving the opposition to Joe Lieberman, while the blogosphere and activists try to make it clear that it's about "issues" other than just Iraq. But values are what today's Connecticut Senate election is really all about. Finally, at long last, Democratic activists are standing up to a politician and saying, "We hold these values dear, and you, Senator, have been working against them for too long." The war in Iraq is an issue that highlights where those values diverge, but make no mistake, it's values that are at the heart of what's happening.
The values that I follow in my campaign for Congress, the values I believe make the Democratic Party the party that can bring this country into the future, that can get it back on its moral compass.
Last week,
I wrote that the CT primary contained a fault line: those who knew politics had changed with the modern GOP, and those who didn't. the Democratic activists are fighting more than just a rear-guard action against an extreme GOP. Democratic activists are fighting for something, not just against something. The answer, I believe, lies in "values." The people working against Joe Lieberman are the values voters of the Democratic Party.
Like probably most of you, I've sat back, appalled, as the word "values" has gotten attached to the Republican Party. Those aren't my values, I'd think, I don't even consider them values at all. Glorifying military action for its own sake with the swagger and "courage" of the non combatant, bankrupting our children for their own greed and avarice, intruding on one of the most intimate and painful decisions a woman can face and not offering her help or even alternatives ... somehow all of these became appeals to "values."
But, in a way, it has been true that the Republican Party has been the party of "values" far more than Democrats. I don't mean in the sense the media usually means it, that the GOP actually is on the correct side of the value-judgments of the American people. I mean that the Republican Party has long understood that it's the overall values of The Party that are important, much more than individual votes or issues. And I don't just mean in a Lakoff-ian "framing" and rhetoric sense, either.
Look at the groups lining up in support of the parties. Certainly the most powerful of all the groups supporting the GOP are the Christian Right groups like the Christian Coalition. These are the ultimate "values" groups in the media narrative. But, as many have noticed, their "values" bear a striking resemblance to the basic platform of the Republican Party. Where, exactly, does the Bible inveigh against an estate tax? Or call for deregulation or spending more than you make. But the Christian Right groups all support these measures; the GOP enforces party discipline on their groups across issues. Because ... it's not about the issues. It's about the narrative and the "values" the party represents. And if the party and an individual candidate share the overall "values" outlook of the group, both substantively and rhetorically, that's what's important politically. Issues report cards are hopelessly outdated in this mode of thinking.
Compare that with the major groups supporting the Democrats. From some of the major labor unions to environmental groups, these are all focused on the issues. They list the votes that matter, grade accordingly, and support Republicans who score above the average for their party. This is absurd. These Republicans are working against the values of those organizations on a broad front; the individual votes are meaningless in that context. But Democratic machine politics has been set up on the issues model, and it ceded the entire values field to the right. It's how the Republicans can maintain such unity, while the Democrats run around from issue to issue and from group to group.
In fact, the Democratic Party was so spooked by the whole "values" debacle that it nominated a representative of the other side's values as its Vice Presidential nominee. I'm speaking, of course, of Joe Lieberman. From the amorphous "moral issues" that only require an opinion but not a sacrifice, to war without end, to the very rhetoric of "values," Joe has worked against the values of Democrats. It's there, not in some scorecard by a liberal group, that Lieberman has worked against Democrats. And it's there that Democratic activists are making their stand.
Joe Lieberman has stated that he has criticized the President on this or that matter of policy regarding Iraq. Joe Lieberman did criticize the President for some aspects of the execution of the war "plan." But he did it while propping up his entire moral justification for the war and, especially, denigrating the motives of those who criticized him as "partisan" ... and this is exactly the wrong thing to do. This is selling out the Democratic Party where it matters, in the area of values and beliefs. Continuing to support the war is not just an issue; it was a profound moral choice. Sticking by the President was not working in a bi-partisan manner; it was signaling that the values of the President were correct. What are tactics compared to that?
Democrats are standing up for our values. I'm running for Congress in New York's 23rd district because I believe in Democratic values. I believe that an individual life has value, and that people have dignity beyond their economic worth. I believe that hard-working Americans shouldn't have to go without proper health care. In fact, I don't believe any American should go without healthcare and that a hospital has an obligation to treat whoever passes through its doors. I believe that going to war is a profound moral decision, a decision in which the entire country needs to be involved and listened to. I believe that Americans have a right to feel secure when they talk on the phone. I believe that government should be open, accountable, and effective. I believe that science has a positive role to play and should not be stifled by government ideology. I believe that we have an obligation to the next generation and that he who has the most toys does not win the game. I believe that we are not in this alone, but together and that helping others requires sacrifice and not just lip service. My values command me to love and help my neighbor and not denigrate them. I believe in paying my debts and staying within my means. These are Democratic values. They are American values.
Predictably, it's the GOP commentators who have cloaked their rhetoric about the CT primary in "values" and religious shadings, from David Brooks calling it an "Inquisition" to Newt Gingrich calling it an "insurgency" with all the echoes of the sectarian violence in Iraq. They know the battlefield on which the political fights of today are being waged. While Democrats, even activists, argue about what issues the primary is really about. While the traditional interest groups of the Democratic Party split on the issues, and the establishment machines gear up to support their guy in Lieberman. All of them missing the point.
But it's not the punditry that matters, in the end. The pundits have no idea what's happening. What matters is that Democrats, in their hearts, know what's happening. We haven't found the rhetoric, yet, and we haven't begun to be explicit in our calls to values. But Democratic activists are fighting for those values, and signaling, loud and clear, that politicians betray those values at their peril. We don't know what the news will bring tonight, but one thing is clear: the fighters for Democratic values are gathering strength by the day. And people fighting for a cause ... that is a force to be reckoned with.
John Kennedy summed up Democratic values with "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." It's time we return to that.
{I'm Dr. Bob Johnson, and I'm running for Congress in New York's 23rd District. Please help me fight for Democratic values by volunteering for our innovative volunteer polling and phone banking and/or contributing to help us spread the message and defeat GOP foot-soldier John McHugh}