A recent article in
The Nation, by Bernie Horn, titled “
Progressive Values 101”, disputes the idea often spouted by Republicans that progressives don’t have a philosophy and don’t know what they stand for. Rather, he maintains that “The problem is, we don’t have an effective framework to communicate our philosophy to persuadable voters.” He notes that we face a real challenge in framing the issues in a way that persuadable American voters will understand, because “Unlike us, they don’t think much about public policy… and they don’t speak policy or use intellectual jargon.” So, he proposes that we speak largely in terms of four widely held values – freedom, opportunity, security, and responsibility – in order to “communicate a coherent set of principles” that the good majority of us share.
Below, I propose some specific examples under these categories. For contrast, I underline the progressive/liberal/Democratic position, and then describe the position of today’s Republican Party in plain text:
FreedomFreedom against unwarranted intrusion by governmentFreedom to criticize the government The Bush administration uses “
first amendment zones” to subvert the right of protesters to be heard. They have even claimed that it
is illegal for our news media to report government actions that the Bush administration unilaterally claims pose a threat to national security.
Freedom to worship (or not) the way one pleases The Bush administration and many or most Republican members of Congress would like to do away with the separation of church and state. Many have expressed the opinion that the United States is a
Christian nation.
Freedom of action within the privacy of one’s home, as long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of others Two of our most conservative USSC justices, Scalia and Thomas, who are George W. Bush’s favorites, expressed a
dissenting opinion that a law that makes gay sex in the privacy of one’s home between two consenting adults a crime is not unconstitutional.
Freedom to do what one wants with his or her own body It is a well known priority of the Bush administration, as well as most Republican members of Congress, to appoint judges who will overturn Roe v. Wade
Freedom against imprisonment without being charged with a crime, and the right to a trial by jury and to face one’s accusers The Bush administration continues to hold prisoners of war by the hundreds, incommunicado,
without bringing charges. It also claims the right to try persons accused of terrorism with
military tribunals, which lack most of the constitutional safeguards provided by a trial by jury.
The right not to be spied upon by government without adequate cause The Bush administration’s domestic
warantless spying program is mainly directed against Americans for whom
no reasonable cause exists for their being spied upon. The response of our Republican Congress to this gross violation of our constitutional rights is to change our laws to make this legal.
Freedom from torture Despite Bush administration rhetoric to the contrary, torture is
widely practiced on our prisoners of war today, and the Bush administration has
justified this practice. When Democratic Senator
Richard Durbin spoke out about this, he was widely vilified by Republicans.
Freedom to bear arms This is the only freedom that Republicans support as much or more than Democrats. In fact, they go to the extreme of supporting it so vigorously that they believe that laws to reduce deaths due to guns by providing
some limits to their use are unconstitutional.
OpportunityFair dealings between the powerful and the less powerful, and non-discriminationAnti-trust laws to limit the powers of corporations The main purpose of the Bush administration is to tear down all the limits on corporate power that were built up during the 20th century for the protection of individual citizens.
Telecommunications laws that protect against corporate consolidation of our news With Reagan’s veto of Democratic legislation passed to enforce the
Fairness Doctrine in 1987, and the passage by a Republican Congress of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, barriers to the corporate consolidation of our news media were all but abolished, so that today our news media is controlled by the smallest number of powerful and wealthy corporations in the history of our country. (Thank God for the internet).
Quality education for all Under the Bush administration funding for primary public education has declined substantially (which is the main reason why Jim Jeffords bolted the party), and fewer and fewer young adults are able to afford a college education. Most Republicans would like to take away money for public education and use that money as
vouchers for those parents who can afford to send their child to a private school.
The right not to be discriminated against on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Republicans killed the
Equal Rights Amendment to our Constitution. Now they are trying to add an amendment to our Constitution that would specifically prohibit the marriage of gay couples, even when states would like to enact such a law.
Protection of those who report corporate malfeasance The Bush administration has done everything in its power – and more – to strip away the
protections of whistleblowers.
The unqualified right of citizens vote in transparent elections Republicans have engaged in massive fraud in the last three elections to disenfranchise voters in
numerous ways. Republicans have vigorously fought against measures to reform our electoral system.
Laws against the currently legal bribery of legislators Wealthy corporations and individuals have a highly disproportionate say in the policies and statutes of our country, by virtue of the money that they contribute to the campaigns of our elected representatives, who are happy to enact legislation that is favorable to their most “generous” contributors. Such practices are BRIBERY in all but their official name.
Laws to limit the influence of money on elections See above. The influence of money on our elections is facilitated by judicial decisions claiming that
money is “speech”, and therefore the right to contribute money to political candidates must be protected. Well, if money is speech, then some people obviously have a hell of a lot more opportunity for speech than the rest of us. And so much for the principle of ‘one person, one vote’.
Appropriate limits on government secrecy The Bush administration is the most secretive in the history of our country. Anything that has the potential to embarrass them they brand as a “national security” issue, so that they can keep it away from the public. Such a practice is not consistent with democratic government.
SecurityProtection not only from criminals and terrorists, but also of our health and well-beingMinimum wage consistent with a decent living
Republicans in recent years have repeatedly obstructed the efforts of Democrats to
raise the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation. That is one of the important reasons why the
poverty rate has risen so much in this country. Excuses that they use to justify this are that a minimum wage puts us on the path to Communism and that it causes unemployment to rise (
not true).
Access to decent health care Republicans are almost uniformly against a national health insurance plan that would make decent health care available to all Americans. They use every excuse in the book for this stance, including that a national health insurance plan would be Communistic, unworkable, and prevent people from choosing their own doctor.
Social Security to help provide for a decent retirement George W. Bush’s plan to
privatize Social Security, using as an excuse the claim that the system was in dire and urgent financial straits, would have destroyed the system by diverting government funds to private financial corporations who would be contracted to carry out the plan.
Unemployment insurance to protect against the vagaries of the job market Despite a recession and plunging employment rates that began shortly after Bush took office, he acted to limit unemployment benefits to the extent that he could.
The unlimited right to sue corporations for damages Under the banner of so-called “
tort reform”, Republicans seek to severely limit the extent to which corporations can be held liable for death or injury in civil suits.
Protection of consumers against dangerous products By hiring conservative ideologues to head agencies charged with protecting consumers against dangerous products, the Bush administration has greatly reduced the level of consumer protection in our country.
The right to form labor unions as a protection against powerful corporations The Bush administration has done everything in its power to stifle the power of unions to protect workers against the arbitrary power of corporations.
Protection against the dangers inherent in environmental degradation This is the most anti-environmental administration in the history of our country since Teddy Roosevelt first made environmental issues a major topic of concern. It chose Gail Norton as Secretary of the Interior, an Agency which she had spent her whole career as a corporate lobbyist fighting. Her main agenda is to argue for the
rights of corporations to pollute our environment.
A progressive income tax that taxes people proportionately to the advantages they receive from government, and their ability to pay The Bush tax cuts have made wealthy individuals and corporations wealthier than ever, while greatly hurting the rest of the country. Republicans in Congress support those cuts almost without exception.
Limits on the unilateral war powers of the Executive Branch The Bush administration took us to war by twisting intelligence data to present several big lies to the American people and to Congress. Our Constitution wisely gave Congress the power to declare war, on the assumption that that was too great a power to be entrusted to a single individual – who may have less than honorable motives for bringing the country into war. The Republicans in Congress gave Bush full support in that effort, despite the
great amount of evidence that he was not being honest about the reasons for war.
Protection against terrorism Although providing abundant rhetoric about its actions to protect us against terrorism, the Bush administration has fallen short on numerous accounts. It initially
ignored numerous warnings about the 9-11 attacks on our country, then made every effort to obstruct the efforts of the 9/11 Commission and others to ascertain what mistakes were made, it proved far more interested in regime change in Afghanistan than it did in finding Osama bin Laden, and it provides insufficient funds for surveillance of cargo coming into our country.
Protection against crime This is one area of protection that Republicans are as interested in as Democrats.
ResponsibilityWith regard to responsibility, Horn has this to say:
We take responsibility for the well-being of our nation by crafting policies to extend freedom, opportunity and security to all. Conservatives cynically turn the word inside out by chanting a mantra of “personal responsibility.” They mean that unemployment, hunger and discrimination are the individual’s problem, not society’s. In this way, conservatives twist the language of responsibility to avoid responsibility. It’s downright Orwellian.
ConclusionThough a good majority of American voters share our progressive/liberal values, we have not done well in recent elections, largely because Republicans have made good use of obscene amounts of money contributed by their wealthy corporate and individual backers, combined with the corporate media propaganda machine (and not to mention
election fraud, which is not the subject of this post), to obscure and twist our message. As Bernie Horn concludes:
Let’s explain ourselves in language that voters will understand and appreciate. Let’s make it clear that, for progressives, “values” is not just a buzzword. And this time around, let’s win.
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