New Democrats have never shied away from message politics, or the belief
that elections are ultimately about values. I distinguish values from
issues. People who are trying to earn enough money, send kids to college,
and deal with all the economic ups and downs of everyday life don't take
a lot of time to process issues. But they do spend time processing values.
New Democrats understand that.
And they understand something else: If you don't win, you don't get to
do anything. If you don't figure out a way to translate your message
into at least 51 percent of the vote, then you will not do very well.
But we have ideological purists in our party who would rather be right
than successful.
These are not the easiest of times for Democrats in the South. A majority
of Southern whites now consider themselves Republicans. They perceive
Democrats as being the exclusive party of African-Americans, teachers,
and labor unions. This is not the Democratic Party of their parents
or grandparents. But many have stayed because they appreciate the
fact that
the Democratic Party represents people who were born without privilege,
who are struggling to fashion some opportunity out of their lives,
who don't have a lot of capital or wealth. These are the 3 million
people
who have lost jobs in the last two years; the 1 million children who
have slipped into poverty in the last year; the 41 million Americans
who do not have health insurance.
Yet this party cannot sustain itself if it does not develop enough
of a backbone to talk about what is right and what is wrong. Does that
mean
that the Howard Dean approach is the answer? I don't think so. But
it does mean that we have to articulate what our party stands for and
why
we are still different -- why we present the best vision for giving
everyone in our society a fighting chance, no matter where they start.
Democrats ought to be able to engage this issue. We ought to be talking
about that until we turn blue in the face. That's the American dream
as many of us have experienced it. I was literally born next to a
railroad track in Montgomery, Ala., and very much on the wrong side
of it. Yet
I was able to go to Harvard, and to Congress.
A Democratic message, properly articulated, will focus on opportunity.
Ronald Reagan won elections in this country because he spoke of the
value of opportunity. Some of us didn't buy his version of opportunity,
but
he kept using that word, and it worked. Yet our presidential candidates
are not singing that song in the way they should.
We are the one party in this country that is able to have an intelligent
political discourse about race. Look at any roomful of Democrats
-- you'll see diversity. But we sometimes run from talking about
race.
Here's how
we have to talk about it: If we expand opportunity in this country,
we are ultimately expanding the talent pool in this country because
talent
is scattered all over society.
Another thing that Democrats must understand is the importance
of faith, particularly in the South. In the South, a significant
number
of our
constituents are people of faith, and they are very open about
their faith. They adopt a lot of their political value system
to fit their
faith. The right wing of the Republican Party has committed an
enormous theft in the last 25 years. They've seized the language
of faith,
and turned it into a conservative value. If we leave faith to
the Republican
Party, we have lost a very important connection with a lot of
people.
As Democrats, we have a story to tell. I'm proud of a party that
created 22 million jobs under Bill Clinton; that moved a record
number of children
out of poverty in the last decade; that created Social Security,
Medicaid, and Medicare. We understand there are things we can
do collectively
as a community that people cannot do for themselves. We understand
that
there are values. But to deserve to return to power, the Democratic
Party has to be true to its value system. We must have a core.
Strength is
not just about loudness and flexing muscle. It is sometimes just
steady, repeated assertion of what is right. That's what the
Democratic Party
has to be about.
