An Interesting Idea... Three Pillars For The Democrats

Three Pillars, Draft 2: Paramendra Bhagat

I occasionally receive e-mail from the author noted above. His recent post offers three pillars for bringing the Democrats into the 21st century. While I think he got sidetracked in the process of writing about this concept, I think the original idea has something useful and interesting:

The Democratic Party needs a new vision, a winning vision, a vision for the 21st century, a vision to take back the Congress, and then the White House. A vision to make it the natural party in power.

You have to be able to say it in one word, in one phrase, in one sentence. There has to be this core vision. Companies call it the mission statement. A political party also needs it, as does the Democratic Party. Democrats have to present themselves as progressives. I would like to propose there are these three broad pillars to progressive thinking. One, democracy. Two, the market. And three, social progress. Together we call them the three pillars.

Again, I think he lost his original focus on the Democrats and began to apply these concepts in a global sense, but he did hit upon something with the three pillars. I especially like the last of the three pillars: social progress.

If we have the ideal of democracy, described as one person: one vote, then we have accomplished much. But we leave room for the tyranny of the majority, which is why our forefathers left us with a foundational political philosophy of "reason" (some might say "enlightenment") and inalienable rights. Democracy based on the one person: one vote ideal does not work without constitutional protections against the tyranny of the majority, which would allow the controlling majority to dictate to minorities madates about religion, family values and personal values, etc.

Then there is the marketplace. Business, or the free exchange of capital, is the basis of empowering people from all classes, races, religions, and creeds. Money is the great equalizer in many respects. It empowers ideas, ideals, philanthropy and innovation. Unfortunately, it also breeds greed, contempt for humanity and disregard of others if it is allowed to become the sole purpose of an endeavor. We have seen greed in our business arena as of late, including the activities of Enron, Tyco, Adelphia, WorldCom, etc. We have seen CEOs and board members making huge profits on the backs of the working stiffs, bilking life savings from the investors coming out of the middle classes and exploiting the poorest among us through a wide variety of money-making schemas.

Which brings us to Bhagat's third pillar: social progress. This is an American tradition that has often gone awry in the eyes of many neo- and ultra-conservatives. Many of the Christian Right condemn it as "social welfare" that breeds laziness and a "welfare mentality" where people do not work or strive toward chainging their circumstances. But I argue that these conservatives are errant in their analysis. While it is certainly true that some people engage in a bilking of the system out of monies and work harder at working the system than finding work, the vast majority of people receiving assistance are indeed very much in need of social and financial assistance. In fact, most research on the matter of welfare fraud (in whatever form) is committed by 1 to 3 percent of the recipients, and it costs more to identify, investigate and prosecute those perpetrators than it does to write off the loss. In comparison, the various forms of corporate welfare and corporate fraud, most of which is committed by the defense industry, but is also committed by numerous industries that lobby congress on a daily basis, shadow the losses we suffer from helping people conquer their circumstances and poverty, build useful infrastructure, develop well-structured schools or most of the "progressive" ideas.

It is indeed the ideal of social progress that our forefathers built into the Preamble of the Constitution that keeps the marketplace and the majority in check. It is the ideal of social progress that offers the ethics of democracy, the rules by which we operate and assess our democracy, and the raison d'etre of American democracy. If we bother to read the Preamble, we find that one of the stated overall purposes of our government, as formed by the Constitution, is to promote the general welfare. Given the history and class structures of the time that these American framers lived through, that in and of itself is socially progressive.

There are several socially progressive ideals outlined as the foundation for our society... I have identified them in bold print for consideration:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Perhaps more of our politicians, especially those claiming a Christian belief system, should read these words every day until they realize that these ideals are based on Judeo-Christian-Muslim ideals as well.