What are our basic principles?

[doni_georgia]

I'll bet there's a wide array of answers.

How are we going to reach the American people again, given the spectrum of opinion within our own party?

We are going to have to reach out and speak out, from the bottom up as well as the top down: we will have to reach people one by one and slog through a swamp of untruths to bring the truth. We have to answer the values debate on even terms: that loving your neighbor as yourself does not have any restrictions on who your neighbor is or what s/he believes or what their predilections are. We have to answer the fiscal debate by being fiscally responsible ourselves. We have to answer questions on the integrity of our positions by holding fast to basic principles - that all people are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Moreover, we have to go back to the Constitution. We need to know that document backwards and forwards and understand what it means, as well as the history that has formed and shaped it. (America is a nation that has cribbed all of its civics courses.) We should not simply say that something is not right; we should be able to say why it is not right and explain our positions simply.

Anger will carry us only a short distance, even if that anger is steeped in righteousness. We need straightforward, easily codified purposes. The power of the Contract With America was that it was simple, brief and struck the heart of the Republican ideal, if not the actuality.

My own suggestions:

(1) We believe that we should stand together as a single, diverse, but uniquely American people, in as much unity as our individual principles allow.
(2) We believe that individual disagreements should be settled amicably, with honest effort to achieve the most beneficial solution possible for all, bringing as little harm to as few as possible.
(3) We believe that all Americans have the right of the voting franchise, and that this franchise is a privilege that should be defended and protected against all opposition.
(4) We believe in the necessity of provision of assistance for any American unable to sustain himself through honest effort.
(5) We believe in the absolute necessity to educate every child to the limit of his ability, and to respect and assist to the greatest degree any individual willing and able to undertake the invaluable task of teaching our children.
(6) We believe in transparency in our government in all levels to the greatest possible degree.
(7) We believe in the necessity of a fiscally responsible economic policy as our duty to our posterity.
(8) We believe in the preservation, restoration, and responsible management of our environmental and natural resources for the benefit of future generations.
(9) We believe in the privilege of every individual to practice the faith of his choice without impedance, within the constraints of the general individual liberty.
(10) We believe in the preservation and furtherance of the physical and economic security of the American people.
(11) We believe that through the applications of these principles, the American nation should be made an example to all nations of benevolence, strength, and justice.

Boiled down to an index card:
(1) We stand as one American union.
(2) We resolve our differences like mature adults.
(3) All Americans have the right to vote.
(4) We help those who cannot help themselves.
(5) We educate our children with excellence.
(6) We enforce trustworthiness in our government.
(7) We pursue effective and responsible economic policies.
(8) We take care of and nurture our resources.
(9) All Americans may worship as they choose.
(10) We vigorously defend our borders, our interests and our people.
(11) We will build a nation that can serve as a model for the world.

Any thoughts?

(on edit: added sig)

Mac in Ga

[leftyandproud]

1. SOCIALISM.

Our leaders just haven't had the guts to say it.

We have nothing to lose now.
Be honest and direct.
Tell people what they will get if they elect a democrat majority (free healthcare, free college, no war, etc).

If we are direct about the benefits and costs (mainly for the rich), we will win in a landslide.

That is what it will take. Let us truly be the people's party.
No more compromise.

[wysi]

3. We...

... haven't got anything left to lose, why not?

[Carson]

8. Socialism is NOT the answer. n/t

[leftyandproud]

9. Yes, Yes it is.

Americans have already embraced many aspects of it. There is general consensus, even among right wingers about the progressive income tax and estate tax, which was Marx's main goal.

[AndyTiedye]

16. The Repubs Want to Overturn That Too

a 30% national sales tax is the new thing with the neocons.

[Crystalrefuge]

2. As long as we can't overturn the theocratic direction of the US

voting public we will fail to maintain a sensible secular state in the image of the one our founding fathers wanted.

"The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses...."
— John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America <1787-1788>; from Adrienne Koch, ed., The American Enlightenment: The Shaping of the American Experiment and a Free Society, New York: George Braziller, 1965, p. 258]

Emphasis mine. Now we have a President who pretends to talk with God. See the problem?

"never understimate the power of stupid people in large numbers"

[doni_georgia]

7. You have a point,

but I have maintained that this perceived strength carries with it a glaring weakness: the commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself, and the admonishment to treat others as one would wish to be treated. If Christians were a small minority in this country, they certainly would not wish to have their marriages voted unconstitutional, regardless of the prevailing morality. Yet many in this same bloc is happy to enforce their own views on others without regard to this simple principle - a position made even more fallacious by the explicit confession of general human depravity that is a requirement to salvation under Christian principles. In short, these people have developed a blind spot in the area of mercy - which is unconscionable, in view of the fact that their own doctrine states that salvation is in itself evidence of God's mercy to humankind.

The fruit of this failing is seen in the lack of mercy encountered by many missionaries today. Would you care to be a missionary in Indonesia today, just for example? This problem is going to get worse. I would not be surprised to see a sharp increase in violence against missionaries in the years to come, not through their own errors but through those of their misguided fellows. Sooner or later, the evangelical Christians will start to figure out that they are in a spiritual Vietnam - sending out their best and bravest into a faraway maelstrom of their own making. It should be interesting to watch how long it will take before a major denomination takes a vocal, public stand against this. I think it will be a flashpoint - it will have to happen sooner or later - and it will be the first cracks in the Christian Republican bloc.

Mac in Ga

[Crystalrefuge]

11. I agree and it's actually worse than you stated.

How honest are the evangelical Christians being with themselves when they claim they are voting for "morale values" by supporting Bush? Bush has broken International and American laws and sought out legal cover in advance to avoid prosecution. He allowed and possibly ordered the torture of detained Iraqis, many of whom are wholly innocent. How will that win their hearts and minds? He claims we are in Iraq to free the Iraqis (the latest excuse) but hides from the American people that he's building a dozen large US bases in the country and expects to be there forever. He cear cuts our forests and calls it "Healthy Forests". He allows energy companies to pollute the air and calls it "Clear Skies". He tells bold faced lies to the American public about the progress of the war, the state of the economy and the state of the deficit. He recklessly slanders his opponent with lies and distortions about his Kerry's service and his policies. He turns a blind eye to proxies who use the media to do character assassination on a great American and says nothing.

How can these good Christians sleep at night supporting such a swine of a President? Is there a better word than swine? How does this represent "Moral Values"? Since when is lying, cheating, murdering and torturing innocents a Christian virtue? This concerns me more than anything else. Surely they know the difference between good and evil but they put "gay marriage" and "daily prayer" ahead of real Christian values.

I'm sorry but I think they are first class hypocrites who are no more virtuous than Al Qaeda's followers. Christian extremists are just as bad for as Islamic extremists.

[baldguy]

4. We hold these truths to be self-evident:

-That all men are created equal.

-That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.

-That among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

-That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed.

-That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

[davepc]

14. how uniquely American

too bad many hear would throw out the Constitution and Declaration of Independence in favor of Marx and Engles.

But these are the same people who wonder why we cant win elections anymore.

[baldguy]

18. Marx and Engles are closer to our Amercian ideals than the GOP is.

Most people who support Bush would throw out the Constitution and Declaration of Independence in favor of the corporate fascist agenda, in exchange for lip-service to the narrow minded "family values" of bigotry and hate.

[Raster]

5. Addendum to Number 3

(3) All Americans have the right to vote, and all votes will be counted. All votes are equal.


That's my takeaway from this mess. I expected all sorts of shenanigans. I still maintain in a free, lawful election with an informed electorate, $hrubco wouldn't stand a snowballs chance in hell. I further believe that to suppress the vote of any race, color or creed in this country is tantamount to an electoral lynching.

[Tamyrlin79]

6. Our principles are those of the Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment is the ideological heritage of the Left. It is the philosophy that made America what it is. It is the ideology that created western science. It is the ideology that demands facts, evidence, to back up what we believe to be "the truth". It is an ideology that sustains a secular society, rather than a religious one. It is a philosophy, rather than a religion. The declaration of independence is a statement of these principles, as are many parts of the constitution. The closest thing this philosophy comes to manifesting a religious viewpoint is in American transcendental philosophy, where god is viewed as more of an oversoul than the traditional conception. See Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman for all that.

Repubs are against all this. Their ideological heritage is christianity, and for them truth is declared by God, and defined by the Bible. The only fact required is that that fact be in the Bible. Since we don't refer to God in our ideology, that makes us Godless. Since we don't uphold the bible, that is perceived as an offense and sinful.

This is, at essence, our cultural divide. It is why the evangelical Repugs don't give a damn about the constitution, really. The Bible is their highest authority on earth. Not the constitution. Any conflict between the two is resolved in favor of the Bible for them.

Do you begin to see where I'm going here?

[doni_georgia]

10. As I just posted -

the failure to exercise mercy is a critical failing.

What is fascinating here is the heresy perpetuated in the Kingdom Now movement. This is a small bloc of evangelicals dedicated to building the foundation of God's Millenial church in preparation for the second coming of Christ. What is interesting is their anticipation of Judgment. I am a Christian myself and I cannot ask God to come in Judgment now on behalf of his church. I would not wish that even on those people who are even now willfully destroying our nation and endangering our world. To ask Christ to come in judgment is to acknowledge the failure of one's own capacity for mercy. Judgment, in a Biblical sense, is absolute, eternal and, for those who fall on the wrong side it, total agony and anguish. Imagine your worst suffering multiplied a thousandfold. Imagine that suffering every second, without respite, forever. Who could ask for that to be visited on anyone? I certainly can't.
This is a criticism that is not counterable. No one in the evangelical movement has ever justified their thirst for judgment to me without having to acknowledge this failing. When pressed, the fallback position is almost always that their own salvation will protect them, which only throws their evil into sharp relief: I got my salvation, so now we can have the Apocalypse. This selfishness makes a mockery of Christ's sacrifice, and to me, is screaming proof of this heresy.
The next time you encounter someone who prays for the second coming, I encourage you to throw this argument at him. There is simply no response that does not expose this fallacy, this lack of mercy, this utter lack of Christian principle. It is the primacy of individual desire over God's will. In a word - it is Satanic.

Mac in Ga

[Raster]

13. the bible is their book as long as they can profit off of it. Religion...

...is a business, pure and simple. And you know what, you don't get much money off of feeding the hungry or giving shelter to the homeless or ministering to the needs of those less fortunate than you. Nope, the way you make money off of religion is to capitalilze on the HATE. Sell the hate. Promote the hate. Advertise the hate. Scare people with hate. And hates best friend is fear. They go hand-in-hand EVERYWHERE. Fear is also a lucrative profit center. Hate and fear. What a religious experience.

[Hatalles]

12. Something needs to be done.

How does democracy work when the majority of the populace has been brainwashed? How would democracy work in Nazi Germany? Nominating another Kerry/Gore/Fill-in-the-blank is not working... this country IS divided, we need to do something.........

[Abelman]

15. Not brainwashed

Apathetic, complacent, and ignorant.

I had a conversation with someone who thinks unemployment has actually gone down, despite the lapses in unemployment benefits. I set him straight.

Others are just too stubborn to admit they are wrong and that their leaders are doing the wrong thing. These are the dangerous ones. It's a fear of being wrong, because that is still something very hard to be in this country. Which is why the revitalizing of the power needs to involve people admitting when they are wrong.

[AndyTiedye]

17. Nobody Else We Nominated Would Have Stood a Chance

The media destroyed Dean in very short order, and they would have
done the same to Kucinich just as fast. Kerry was by far the strongest
candidate we could have offered.

But they stole the election.

He who votes decides nothing, he who counts the votes decides everything.

J. Stalin