Democrats Have Values—American Values
The following speech was delivered at the Democratic Leadership Council's "Conversations With Hilary" event held in Denver, Colorado this past weekend. While the writing is mine, the thoughts were developed conjointly with Mrs. Helen Boothe, a leading Democrat in Northwest Indiana/Calumet Region/Duneland Area of Porter County. It is my sincerest hope that someone at this DLC event was listening.
Helen Boothe and Jim Downey
Northwest Indiana
July 22, 2006
The other side of the political spectrum accuses us Democrats of being “leftist,” “liberal” as if it were a curse word, flip-floppers, wishy-washy, and without values. It is our contention that we are not without values. But we do lack a cohesive voice as to what those values are. We have failed to clearly articulate why most Americans should share those values.
Even in the face of the many scandals (most of them perpetrated by those claiming to have superior values), the breach of our Constitution, and clear indication that everything in our federal government is for sale to the highest bidder, we have failed to convince most Americans—and perhaps the rest of the world—that we Democrats have any values, purpose or mission.
If we, as Democrats, ever hope to genuinely affect the lives of our citizens, to change the direction of our government, our role in the international community, and be the party that speaks for the moral character of our nation, we must return to the values that made the Democrats great. Those values are clearly delineated in the Preamble, our Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the subsequent Amendments. Those values were clearly articulated by FDR, JFK and LBJ. These were leaders that called for our nation to come together and face our problems, fears and threats—without compromising our basic truths. It is not that these leaders did not make mistakes, it is that we have learned much from those mistakes. We remain willing to learn from our mistakes while those on the other side of the spectrum remain entrenched in their mistakes.
The fact is that we must act in accordance with our Constitution not only to preserve our union, but also to strive, as our framers set forth, for a more perfect union. Over the last four presidential administrations we have not focused on the struggle for a more perfect union. The Reagan, Bush Sr and Bush Jr administrations have been focused on a form of corporatism that has lead us to a latent form of fascism—acting like fascists in our dealings with those we hold captive and by subverting the rights of our own citizens. During the Clinton administration we were distracted by wild goose chases, red herrings and wrong-headed debates on issues that have no business on our national agenda. We have lost our way as a party—and as a country.
When our nation acts in a manner that is contrary to our own principles of justice, fairness, equity and law, we undermine all our endeavors. We destroy our standing before the world—and our own people—when we abandon the lessons of our own history and rely upon emotional, knee-jerk reactions to guide us in important matters of governance, leadership and national morality.
When our government, its elected officials, appointed officers and representatives fail to adhere to even the most basic principles of justice in all things—and at all times—we undermine the very foundation of our way of life. We rob our greatness and cast aside the achievements of all our previous generations. Our lofty goal and first principle of establishing justice becomes mere words on a sheet of paper. Our nation, our principles, cannot be dismissed in this manner if we expect to survive another year, another decade or into the rest of this millenium as one nation.
Our domestic tranquility does not rest upon the widely cast net of secret spying programs that are not only ineffective at catching the evil bastards that desire to do us harm, but only serve to imprison us in an ideological jail while the perpetrators run free.
Our safety and security does not depend upon creating so much fear among our citizens that we surrender our basic liberties with a mere shrug of our collective shoulders. FDR warned us about allowing fear to rule our lives.
Our common defense does not require us to erode the safety net of the Bill of Rights, but does indeed depend upon assuring that our government operates in complete regard for, and congruency with, every principle and tenet of the Constitution in its entirety. We cannot stand idly by while a person holding our highest elected office dismisses the supreme law of the land with a shrug, an excuse, a threat of impending catastrophe and a disregard of our fundamental truths.
We cannot promote the general welfare by ignoring those that suffer from the trappings of poverty, and implement policies that force those needing our support into the poorest paying jobs that lack any real benefits.
We cannot allow corporations to write off almost any type of expense but tax the hell out of those receiving unemployment benefits. We cannot give business a blank check, allowing the largest corporations to rack up huge windfall profits, while harming workers through down-sizing, outsourcing and hacking benefits to pieces. We cannot allow big businesses to declare bankruptcy and wipe out obligations to pensioners and stockholders while top executives walk away with years of high income and golden parachutes that make the income of the average worker seem like pennies thrown in the gutter. We cannot create laws that allow businesses to wipe out debts but forces those hit with family crises to adhere to a harsher standard.
We do nothing for our country by passing tax cuts that only benefit the top 10% of our income earners while we hold the poverty line and the minimum wage hostage for a decade or more.
Our nation does not benefit when a third of our homeless population are children. We are not perceived as a great nation when we have 3 million people living on the streets, in their cars or in a trash container. Our status as a great nation is not secured when we completely ignore mental health issues across the nation. We do not demonstrate family values when we define a family according to rigid standards that ignores the heritage, ethnicity, free will and religious choice of over 40% of our people.
Our greatness is not demonstrated to the world when we remain the only highly industrialized nation in the world that does not have universal health care coverage.
Our nation will not survive if our public health status remains in decline. Not only have we cut funding for public health, but we have actually allowed major relapses in our overall public health. Our healthcare infrastructure is shifting from a public duty to a private matter… and those holding the purse strings are getting rich because our people are not receiving the best of care.
Even though we know there is a direct link between overall health and dental care, we do not have universal dental care. Not only do we face HIV and AIDS, but hepatitis, tuberculosis, a litany of occupational diseases and a host of sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise. We have become so pre-occupied with regulating the reproductive habits of the poor through anti-abortion campaigns that we have failed to see that abstinence-only programs are placing the poorest and least educated among us in untenable economic and social circumstances. We rail against abortion but do nothing to make foster care and adoption easier, more effective or more acceptable. These are not the actions of a nation founded on the principles and values articulated in our Preamble.
Our public health is not well when our medical profession is dependent upon doctors, nurses and technicians that are being imported to our nation because we are not spending the money on education.
Our prosperity and posterity are not preserved when foreign students attend our best colleges and universities on a fully-paid stipend or scholarship from their government while our own citizens are forced to take out huge burdensome loans.
Our continued prosperity is not assured when our schools fail to educate because we are not funding federal mandates and are too busy teaching to the patchwork quilt of standardized tests that do not teach our students to read, write, problem solve or achieve.
Our ability to protect this nation, respond to its needs during an emergency, and secure its borders remains at an all-time low. Our basic infrastructure—roadways, railways, locks, dams and levees—are wholly inadequate to meet our needs and protect us from disaster. Our National Guard—which is supposed to be guarding our home front—is so depleted because its troops are in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere while active duty troops remain at bases across the country. A great society is able to help its own people during a time of crisis… and we have failed that task.
We are not a great nation when we pay lip service to honoring those that have placed their lives on the line for our flag and our first principles. Our reverence for those that have served our nation—our veterans and fallen war heroes—is being desecrated by the denial of basic healthcare benefits. Our commitment to our service members is not demonstrated when troops on the battlefield are still not fully equipped with proper armor… and our troops are suffering grave injuries or death as a result.
Our basic American values are not fulfilled when the federal government sticks its nose into our private lives while ignoring our public needs. We are more concerned with the choices people make about who they love or choose to engage sexually than whether our people are well-fed, healthy or represented properly—and ethically—in government. We would rather pass an amendment against gay marriage than laws that require ethical behavior and proper financial management by our politicians, business leaders and the government.
We cannot survive as the bedrock nation of democracy if we do not return to the first principles and fundamental values embedded and embodied in our Constitution. Our deficits are at an all-time high and the principle of balancing our expenditures and revenues is “whacked.” Our ability to voice our concerns to our political leadership is almost non-existent because the lobbyists and wealthy influence peddlers crowd us out of the offices of our own congress.
America does not stand tall among the nations of the world when we are more willing to pay for prisons, executions and punishment than education, treatment and treating people with even the most basic levels of respect. While there are those among us that criticize our nation for not having family values—and by that they mean only their ideas and values—while ignoring the foundation and demonstration of those values. Our hypocrisy is fully exposed when our nation’s leaders proclaim values based on a single-minded religiosity, but fail to act in a manner consistent with even the basic teachings of that religion: love, hope and charity.
Our invasion of other nations based upon lies and manipulation—committed by our own leaders and officials—does not represent us well before the international community. We have gone from hoping for, and supporting, democracy around the world to becoming jailers of ideas and liberty at home and abroad. We have become so focused on implementing a wrong-headed idea of freedom, democracy and liberty that we have all but abandoned those principles here, where our framers so valued these ideals that they found a way to weave them into our government and our way of life.
Democrats need to come together over American values. American values are not found in a religious scripture… they are found in our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the subsequent Amendments. We, as members of the party whose name has the same linguistic roots as the word “democracy,” must re-commit to those basic values and ideals. But more importantly, we must articulate these same values, principles and ideals in all that we do. Our actions need to speak louder than our words.
Our people must feel free to dissent and voice opinions contrary to the party bosses and political leadership. We must find the best candidates—those that are committed to these American values and service to our nation and to “We the people…”—and fully support them in their efforts to not only win an election, but put our American values into practice… into action. We must demonstrate to that large portion of our voting-age population that do not bother to go to the polls, that WE have their interests at heart… WE will represent them, their needs, their hopes, their dreams and their interests in government. WE need to re-assure the whole nation that we can lead in such a way to allow businesses to succeed; workers to thrive; people to be healthy; and our nation to once again be looked upon with not only favorable eyes, but with awe because we are a great nation that will not abandon our first principles and fundamental values not matter what adversity confronts us.
Northwest Indiana
July 22, 2006
The other side of the political spectrum accuses us Democrats of being “leftist,” “liberal” as if it were a curse word, flip-floppers, wishy-washy, and without values. It is our contention that we are not without values. But we do lack a cohesive voice as to what those values are. We have failed to clearly articulate why most Americans should share those values.
Even in the face of the many scandals (most of them perpetrated by those claiming to have superior values), the breach of our Constitution, and clear indication that everything in our federal government is for sale to the highest bidder, we have failed to convince most Americans—and perhaps the rest of the world—that we Democrats have any values, purpose or mission.
If we, as Democrats, ever hope to genuinely affect the lives of our citizens, to change the direction of our government, our role in the international community, and be the party that speaks for the moral character of our nation, we must return to the values that made the Democrats great. Those values are clearly delineated in the Preamble, our Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the subsequent Amendments. Those values were clearly articulated by FDR, JFK and LBJ. These were leaders that called for our nation to come together and face our problems, fears and threats—without compromising our basic truths. It is not that these leaders did not make mistakes, it is that we have learned much from those mistakes. We remain willing to learn from our mistakes while those on the other side of the spectrum remain entrenched in their mistakes.
The fact is that we must act in accordance with our Constitution not only to preserve our union, but also to strive, as our framers set forth, for a more perfect union. Over the last four presidential administrations we have not focused on the struggle for a more perfect union. The Reagan, Bush Sr and Bush Jr administrations have been focused on a form of corporatism that has lead us to a latent form of fascism—acting like fascists in our dealings with those we hold captive and by subverting the rights of our own citizens. During the Clinton administration we were distracted by wild goose chases, red herrings and wrong-headed debates on issues that have no business on our national agenda. We have lost our way as a party—and as a country.
When our nation acts in a manner that is contrary to our own principles of justice, fairness, equity and law, we undermine all our endeavors. We destroy our standing before the world—and our own people—when we abandon the lessons of our own history and rely upon emotional, knee-jerk reactions to guide us in important matters of governance, leadership and national morality.
When our government, its elected officials, appointed officers and representatives fail to adhere to even the most basic principles of justice in all things—and at all times—we undermine the very foundation of our way of life. We rob our greatness and cast aside the achievements of all our previous generations. Our lofty goal and first principle of establishing justice becomes mere words on a sheet of paper. Our nation, our principles, cannot be dismissed in this manner if we expect to survive another year, another decade or into the rest of this millenium as one nation.
Our domestic tranquility does not rest upon the widely cast net of secret spying programs that are not only ineffective at catching the evil bastards that desire to do us harm, but only serve to imprison us in an ideological jail while the perpetrators run free.
Our safety and security does not depend upon creating so much fear among our citizens that we surrender our basic liberties with a mere shrug of our collective shoulders. FDR warned us about allowing fear to rule our lives.
Our common defense does not require us to erode the safety net of the Bill of Rights, but does indeed depend upon assuring that our government operates in complete regard for, and congruency with, every principle and tenet of the Constitution in its entirety. We cannot stand idly by while a person holding our highest elected office dismisses the supreme law of the land with a shrug, an excuse, a threat of impending catastrophe and a disregard of our fundamental truths.
We cannot promote the general welfare by ignoring those that suffer from the trappings of poverty, and implement policies that force those needing our support into the poorest paying jobs that lack any real benefits.
We cannot allow corporations to write off almost any type of expense but tax the hell out of those receiving unemployment benefits. We cannot give business a blank check, allowing the largest corporations to rack up huge windfall profits, while harming workers through down-sizing, outsourcing and hacking benefits to pieces. We cannot allow big businesses to declare bankruptcy and wipe out obligations to pensioners and stockholders while top executives walk away with years of high income and golden parachutes that make the income of the average worker seem like pennies thrown in the gutter. We cannot create laws that allow businesses to wipe out debts but forces those hit with family crises to adhere to a harsher standard.
We do nothing for our country by passing tax cuts that only benefit the top 10% of our income earners while we hold the poverty line and the minimum wage hostage for a decade or more.
Our nation does not benefit when a third of our homeless population are children. We are not perceived as a great nation when we have 3 million people living on the streets, in their cars or in a trash container. Our status as a great nation is not secured when we completely ignore mental health issues across the nation. We do not demonstrate family values when we define a family according to rigid standards that ignores the heritage, ethnicity, free will and religious choice of over 40% of our people.
Our greatness is not demonstrated to the world when we remain the only highly industrialized nation in the world that does not have universal health care coverage.
Our nation will not survive if our public health status remains in decline. Not only have we cut funding for public health, but we have actually allowed major relapses in our overall public health. Our healthcare infrastructure is shifting from a public duty to a private matter… and those holding the purse strings are getting rich because our people are not receiving the best of care.
Even though we know there is a direct link between overall health and dental care, we do not have universal dental care. Not only do we face HIV and AIDS, but hepatitis, tuberculosis, a litany of occupational diseases and a host of sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise. We have become so pre-occupied with regulating the reproductive habits of the poor through anti-abortion campaigns that we have failed to see that abstinence-only programs are placing the poorest and least educated among us in untenable economic and social circumstances. We rail against abortion but do nothing to make foster care and adoption easier, more effective or more acceptable. These are not the actions of a nation founded on the principles and values articulated in our Preamble.
Our public health is not well when our medical profession is dependent upon doctors, nurses and technicians that are being imported to our nation because we are not spending the money on education.
Our prosperity and posterity are not preserved when foreign students attend our best colleges and universities on a fully-paid stipend or scholarship from their government while our own citizens are forced to take out huge burdensome loans.
Our continued prosperity is not assured when our schools fail to educate because we are not funding federal mandates and are too busy teaching to the patchwork quilt of standardized tests that do not teach our students to read, write, problem solve or achieve.
Our ability to protect this nation, respond to its needs during an emergency, and secure its borders remains at an all-time low. Our basic infrastructure—roadways, railways, locks, dams and levees—are wholly inadequate to meet our needs and protect us from disaster. Our National Guard—which is supposed to be guarding our home front—is so depleted because its troops are in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere while active duty troops remain at bases across the country. A great society is able to help its own people during a time of crisis… and we have failed that task.
We are not a great nation when we pay lip service to honoring those that have placed their lives on the line for our flag and our first principles. Our reverence for those that have served our nation—our veterans and fallen war heroes—is being desecrated by the denial of basic healthcare benefits. Our commitment to our service members is not demonstrated when troops on the battlefield are still not fully equipped with proper armor… and our troops are suffering grave injuries or death as a result.
Our basic American values are not fulfilled when the federal government sticks its nose into our private lives while ignoring our public needs. We are more concerned with the choices people make about who they love or choose to engage sexually than whether our people are well-fed, healthy or represented properly—and ethically—in government. We would rather pass an amendment against gay marriage than laws that require ethical behavior and proper financial management by our politicians, business leaders and the government.
We cannot survive as the bedrock nation of democracy if we do not return to the first principles and fundamental values embedded and embodied in our Constitution. Our deficits are at an all-time high and the principle of balancing our expenditures and revenues is “whacked.” Our ability to voice our concerns to our political leadership is almost non-existent because the lobbyists and wealthy influence peddlers crowd us out of the offices of our own congress.
America does not stand tall among the nations of the world when we are more willing to pay for prisons, executions and punishment than education, treatment and treating people with even the most basic levels of respect. While there are those among us that criticize our nation for not having family values—and by that they mean only their ideas and values—while ignoring the foundation and demonstration of those values. Our hypocrisy is fully exposed when our nation’s leaders proclaim values based on a single-minded religiosity, but fail to act in a manner consistent with even the basic teachings of that religion: love, hope and charity.
Our invasion of other nations based upon lies and manipulation—committed by our own leaders and officials—does not represent us well before the international community. We have gone from hoping for, and supporting, democracy around the world to becoming jailers of ideas and liberty at home and abroad. We have become so focused on implementing a wrong-headed idea of freedom, democracy and liberty that we have all but abandoned those principles here, where our framers so valued these ideals that they found a way to weave them into our government and our way of life.
Democrats need to come together over American values. American values are not found in a religious scripture… they are found in our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the subsequent Amendments. We, as members of the party whose name has the same linguistic roots as the word “democracy,” must re-commit to those basic values and ideals. But more importantly, we must articulate these same values, principles and ideals in all that we do. Our actions need to speak louder than our words.
Our people must feel free to dissent and voice opinions contrary to the party bosses and political leadership. We must find the best candidates—those that are committed to these American values and service to our nation and to “We the people…”—and fully support them in their efforts to not only win an election, but put our American values into practice… into action. We must demonstrate to that large portion of our voting-age population that do not bother to go to the polls, that WE have their interests at heart… WE will represent them, their needs, their hopes, their dreams and their interests in government. WE need to re-assure the whole nation that we can lead in such a way to allow businesses to succeed; workers to thrive; people to be healthy; and our nation to once again be looked upon with not only favorable eyes, but with awe because we are a great nation that will not abandon our first principles and fundamental values not matter what adversity confronts us.
posted by Jim Downey at 4:38 AM
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