Tom Perez, the newly minted DNC chair, is a good guy, an accomplished guy and savvy enough to help heal divisions within the Democratic Party.
Frankly, the party could benefit from soul-searching and rebooting. Considering the patchwork of recent Democratic Party success and the weakening of traditional Democratic coalitions, Democrats looking for light at the end of a dark tunnel must take solace in remembering that the times of greatest challenge provide the greatest opportunities.
As dark as these times feel, I believe there’s a tremendous opportunity to grow the Democratic Party. We need to remain the big tent for all Americans with a conscience, including those who’ve abandoned other party affiliations.
Rebuilding the party, both in terms of day-to-day support for operations at every level and harnessing the enormous new energy on the left is a big job. That task is made more difficult by casting the party divisions as progressive vs. establishment, Bernie vs. Hillary, young vs. old, etc.
If a party is to function effectively as an organization, it has to be built around a clear set of unifying values, core principles, clear policy agenda and emotionally resonant narrative and message. We must bridge differences across the “wings” of the party if we are to win and govern effectively.
The party needs to be big enough to be progressive, i.e. for progress, and to stand for economic and social justice without waging class warfare.
The role of government has been at the core of our national debate since the founding. Striking a balance which may resonate with both progressives and conservatives, Abraham Lincoln defined the purpose of government as tending to those matters that the market cannot do well. For example, health care, national security, the environment, energy policy, climate change, taxes and public investment, equality and education are all examples of areas in which we need our government to effectively tackle national issues that affect us all as Americans.
How to manage the partnership between government and private enterprise with true accountability and efficiency that produces real results and measurable benefits is a challenge worth taking up.
The current administration’s cynical embrace of “small government” and “deregulation,” however, is misguided ideology intended to destroy decades of social progress and allow corporate elitists to continue to skew the system to their own advantage and profit. We need to move past stale arguments about big vs. small government. We need effective government to protect the people.
We also need to recognize that the economic landscape has changed. Policy has not caught up to reality.
We must embrace a 21st-century economic paradigm and recognize the profound changes that now shape the nature of work and our economic future. The hollow promise that nativism and isolationism will “bring back” jobs is a cruel con.
Our future economic prosperity lies in an America agenda built on education, innovation, infrastructure and reform: A modern education system encouraging STEAM, project-based learning and creativity; world-leading innovation and science promoting new technology, new jobs and new markets; investment in traditional infrastructure as well as in new digital highways and renewable energy production and distribution; finally, real reform of political campaign finance, health care for all and social safety nets to ensure sustainability.
That is the way we lead the world with the power of our ideas, our people and our values.
The world needs a strong, compassionate, powerful and respectful America. The times and terrorism call for strength without blustering aggression.
The disenfranchised, dislocated and oppressed people of the world look to America as a compassionate, benevolent and generous partner, a nation powerful enough to be secure without having to prove it all the time, and respectful of the diversity of a world made small by digital flow and the carelessness of the industrial age. This fragile planet is threatened by forces of darkness and greed within and without our borders. It is past time to lead the world on climate change with bold steps around conservation and innovation that enhance our own quality of life and set an example for others to follow.
Climate change poses our greatest threat to global stability. The economic and social consequences of ignorance and denial are severe.
It’s easy to deploy fear as a weapon in politics. To stand up to fear-based politics, Democrats must come together around the value of the free human spirit that the founders recognized, that peculiarly American combination of individual freedom and shared social responsibility that has been the stabilizing hallmark of our democracy.
At root, the great strength of our country and the Democratic Party is in valuing equally every individual. Our government must serve the people in a system in which the capital markets care only about profit.
As Americans, our citizenship requires shared responsibility for living together in a just society with opportunity for all made a reality, not merely recited as a cliche. We must promote a new corporate compact that values people along with profit. We need a strong, unified Democratic Party to recover our common sense, our common decency, our common good and light the way to a better future for all of us.
It’s our Republic if we can keep it.
(Paul Hodes of Concord is a former U.S. representative for the Second Congressional District.)