Articulating progressive values
There's a broad failure to publicly explain the reasoning behind a progressive viewpoint: why we want to invest in the future, why people care about the disadvantaged, and how such ideas are at the core of the American Dream.
These values have been ridiculed and demonized, but I think the time has come to dust them off and take a fresh look. I'll explain five here, starting with the word at the heart of it:
These values have been ridiculed and demonized, but I think the time has come to dust them off and take a fresh look. I'll explain five here, starting with the word at the heart of it:
- Progress: History is filled with tragedy and epic success, yet between the earliest civilizations and today there's a distinct line of expanding knowledge, farther reaching exploration, and growing achievements. It is the continuation of these trends that is at the core of progressivism.
- Hope: Progress is not inevitable. In the face of malice, evil and a vast empty universe, people continue to get up every day to make things better for themselves and their families. Speaking to this drive forward should be at the heart of progressive communication.
- People: We can expect greatness from people without ignoring the horrible things they are capable of. People built the pyramids, went to the moon, and discovered DNA. We take these things for granted now, but the scale of achievement they represent is immense. People are still capable of amazing things, but must be put to the task.
- Compassion: How do we treat the old and dying? Veterans? Others who cannot care for themselves and have no one to care for them? We can decide to care for the neediest people while acknowledging the risk of creating unneeded dependency on the government.
- Strength: Sharing these is not weakness; far from it. We can share these values without sacrificing military strength, while having strong laws, ethics and punishments for people who trangress them.
posted by $!# at 3/28/2006 07:22:00 AM
2 Comments:
The hope point is one that hasn't been emphasized very much since Bill Clinton left office -- and I'd argue, it's one that he built his presidency on. People love that.
'People are still capable of amazing things, but must be put to the task.' I think I'd phrase this quite difficulty.
People are capable of amazing things, but to realize their dreams, must be given the opportunity. The role of government is to give all citizens an equal footing to achieve their goals, and, by so doing, allow progress -- enable greatness -- in society as a whole. That, I think, is the essence of progressivism. Government without compassion is pointless, for if it's not levelling the playing field between the strong -- those who are armed, or who would grab power -- and the weak -- those whose sick and tired bodies house vigorous minds which can benefit us all; those hobbled by the debts of their parents, or ravaged by hurricanes -- it's only further enabling those who are already strong, who are capable of playing any system. As progressives, this compassion is our great blessing. It does not make us weak; it gives us collective strength beyond the imaginings of the selfish and power-grubbing, the hooded klansman, the soulless CEO who swindles millions while his cleaning lady, after working hard all her life and believing in the American Dream, loses her retirement. As progressives, our goal is to prevent such atrocities, so that that cleaning lady's daughter can go to college, can become a physicist who helps send Americans to Mars, or helps cure Hodgkin's disease.
Such a goal is not only for the benefit of all mankind -- it's quintessentially American. American history is made up of people coming to our promised land to escape bonds -- of debt, of slavery, of persecution -- so that they might achieve greatness. Feats like our landing on the moon were made possible by America's proud history as a progressive haven -- in that case, for scientists fleeing Nazi persecution. As progressives, we see the priceless value in ensuring that those opportunities remain available to all of our people, without regard to race, to sex, to religion, to age, to sexuality, to class or wealth or country of origin. That opportunity, the dream of achieving whatever you set your mind to, without being battered by needless obstacles, is what has *always* made America great; to threaten it is heretical to the very American Dream itself.
Well put.
The immigration protests in particular evoke this hope/refuge theme. It's impossible to wall off the entire country. And where are we without cheap labor and people hungry to move ahead? Stagnant.
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