Kos has decided to make it a priority of this blog to discuss a new values branding for the Democratic Party,
here, and
here. In the comments there has been rigorous discussion of what the core values of the Democratic Party are. Personally I'm a fan of "Safer World, equity, and responsible government." But as someone who really believes branding ourselves with certain values then framing everything back to those core values I sense a problem with this for the Democratic Party. Do we really all share the same moral values?
It has been
observed that Republicans have amazing party discipline when it comes time to vote on bills in the House and Senate while Democrats have terrible Party discipline. This is because we are so factioned as a party. We have a party made up of a diverse range of viewpoints, that includes liberals, moderates, and some who I would characterize as pretty conservative. You can talk all you like about moral coherency and a common moral message in the Democratic Party, but the fact is that it cannot work because the Party doesn't represent a common set of moral values like the Republicans do.
Certainly individual candidates for office can establish moral coherency and a strong values based message, but it cannot be a common narrative that Democrats can run under, because so many Democrats do not agree on what those values are.
Here at DailyKos most people have a common idea about what those values are. Sure, we disagree about the specifics of the brand, and many think every brand anyone suggests is too vague and abstract. But essentially we agree on the values. I'm sure everyone here values a safer world, equity, and responsible government whether you like the brand I use or not. We all support protecting the environment and individual liberties, we all support equal rights under the law and narrowing the income gap between the haves and the havenots. But I have grown increasingly convinced that many in the Democratic Leadership Council and other "centrist" groups don't share those values at all.
I was talking to a friend (a self described Democratic partison, the President of the Linfield College Democrats, and a fellow Political Science Major) about the 1996 welfare bill that Clinton signed. He thought it was a good bill, I did not. I made my arguments that the bill worked against the American social goal of reducing poverty and he responded with the following:
We are a capitalist country and so while we have social equality we won't have economic equality some people are going to be better off that others. That whats makes the US the world's greatest country the drive we have because of capitalism. If people want socialism there is always Europe or Canada.
Suddenly I realized that he didn't care if 13% of the population can't afford the basic necessities of life. This told me two things:
1. No wonder we have such terrible party loyalty in Congress, Democrats don't all share the same values
2. How can we hope to change our frame to a better values-based message if we can't even agree on the basic values about how we should govern.
My point here is this. Democrats cannot come up with their own unifying brand because Democrats don't share the same values. Lakoff is the best chance we have for progressives to win, but that fails to convert into a narrative for the Democratic Party as a whole the way it stands today I believe Lakoff can work for Presidential politics, and can work to get liberal Democrats elected to deep red districts. But Democrats cannot generate a larger party narrative without a change in the Party such that progressives represent a vast majority of Democrats, something that is simply not the case today.
I would cross post this at my blog but the friend I refer to looks at it, and I don't wish to offend. Please check out my blog though.