Stress the Basic American Values That Underly Progressive Policy Proposals

Link Policies to Values Explicitly 

In last week’s post on this blog, I said that progressives must retrieve the ability to talk about justice with the vocabulary of class, and I provided examples of the use of a class-based vocabulary from Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s campaign web site. However, using the vocabulary of class to describe and promote policy proposals by itself will not be enough. Democrats must also link their proposals explicitly to basic, American values. They must show how their proposals flow from those values.

Basic American Values

Values From Our Founding Documents

Basic American values may be found in the founding documents of our republic, and commitment to those values is part of what it means to be American. Our Declaration of Independence says,

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….

Our Constitution tells us that our government was established in order to:

…establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity ….

These words say that our government has a positive duty to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility and promote the general welfare. Democrats can link their policy proposals to this positive duty.

Widely Held Values

Widely held American values may also be found outside of our founding documents. Ideas like equality of opportunity or playing on a level playing field may be used. Finally, we can reclaim patriotism by linking it to each individual’s responsibility to promote the strength, cohesion or competitiveness of our country.

An Example: Linking Basic American Values to the Policy of Free Post-Secondary Education

We can use the policy of free post-secondary education to illustrate each of these approaches.  

The Constitutional Approach

Here is the constitutional approach. Our government should use tax money to provide free post-secondary education because our government has a duty to establish justice and promote the general welfare. A just society cannot be based on the idea that the children of the wealthy who have done nothing to earn their parents’ wealth should have an unearned advantage. They should not be able to start their adult lives without heavy debts while the children of ordinary, working Americans have their financial lives crippled by debts. A government with a responsibility to establish justice and promote the general welfare should not allow such injustice to continue.

An Argument Based on Equality of Opportunity

Democrats can also link the policy of free post-secondary education to the idea of equality of opportunity. We Americans believe that fair competition is fundamental to our system, but a system that saddles some people with heavy debts that others do not have to bear is fundamentally unfair. It is like forcing some runners in a race to run with weights strapped to their ankles. Such a system gives an unfair advantage to the runners who do not have the weights on their ankles. A government with a responsibility to establish justice and promote the general welfare should not allow such injustice to continue.

An Argument Based on Patriotism

Finally, Democrats can relate the policy of free post-secondary education to our patriotic duty to do what we can to strengthen and develop our country. In the brutal international competition for economic primacy, we need all of the trained and educated workers that we can produce. We should not waste a large share of our potential by making it difficult for young people to obtain the training that they need and that our economy needs them to receive. A government that has a responsibility to provide for the common defense should do what is necessary to make sure that we have a sufficient supply of trained people.

This does not include only people trained in the STEM fields. The people who manage the technical folks need a much broader view of the world than that provided by training in computer programming or engineering, and our government needs people with a broad view as well. So, education in the humanities is also important.

Say It Over and Over Again

Whichever approach to linking to values is used, it should be made explicit, and it should be repeated every time the issue is discussed. Democrats should never allow the link between the policy and the values that justify it to be assumed. Instead, they should point to the connection over and over again. They should never allow the issue to be discussed without an explicit reference to the underlying values. That is how Democrats can build a consensus in favor of the policy of free post-secondary education, and the same approach may be used with any other policy position. The repetition of the link to values will gradually establish itself in the minds of voters and will help to build a consensus in favor of the policy.