As Will Rogers famously said, "I don't belong to any organized political party, I'm a Democrat." That is what is the attraction of the Democratic party. We aren't a party of ideology and lock step, we are a party of open dialogue and debate. In the environment of media access as the main means with which citizens use to educate themselves about politics and politicians, a party of factions is easily defined as fuzzy and uncertain while also being tarred as being extremist and elitist. We need to combat this framing of the discourse, without loosing the core of the party, which is inclusive and nurturing in nature. I'd like to be part of the big, macho, resolute, rock ribbed, hard-nosed party, but the folks who have taken that title have about zero sense in how to govern correctly. I'd rather be part of the ideas, progress, responsibility, openness, and equality party. And the folks who can claim this mantle also know how to govern.
The difference has been framed as the "Mommy Party" and the "Daddy Party." The lefty online pundits (I really don't like "the blogosphere" or other "blog" related terminology, but that is probably another post) have promoted the "grown-ups" frame as a way to distinguish us from them. We do need to counter with the correct view that the difference is between the short sighted juvenile party, and the far-sighted, grown up party. Because the differences are very similar to how you act as a juvenile/adolescent and how you act once you've matured and taken on the responsibility of family and direction in your life.
Over at Pandagon Jesse posted The Question and we do need to keep the answer at the top of the discourse, what do we stand for? Good governance is the answer. What does that mean? Well, we're the folks concerned with the big picture. We're concerned with the future. We're concerned for our neighbors, our parents, and our children. We're concerned with our security. And our concern is for the future of all these things. Our answers are there, Social Security, Balanced Budgets, Strong Alliances, Healthy Environment, Equal Opportunity, Intelligent Defense, Aggressive Diplomacy, Public Education, Living Wage, Progressive Taxation, Human Rights, Corporate Regulation. All of these were developed overtime as Good Governance. I fear that this will have some persuasiveness to it in the coming years, and we should hammer it home. We're for Good Governance and the folks in control are failing at any governance whatsoever.
