progress and patriotism

[Turkw]

If you look up liberalism in the dictionary you will find that a belief in progress is part of the definition. So being liberal should mean that you believe in progress. Some Democrats describe themselves as being progressive, instead of being liberal. My question is not one of semantics, but of substance, what exactly are our progressive positions? Racial, gender, etc. equality? Workers rights? Environmental Concerns? Right to Choose? I could go on, but you can easily add to the list yourself. Are these issues important? Certainly, in some cases critically. But they do not answer my question, in fact they highlight it. What are our progressive positions?

Many of these causes have had immense setbacks under the current administration. Democrats desperately want to stop any further damage and restore the protections that have been stripped away. This is terribly important, I agree. But this is a strategy based on defending what the party has already accomplished. It is not enough. Being against, or angry at Bush and what he has done is important, but it is not enough. What are our progressive positions?

How many of the positions and issues that the Democratic party champion been brought to the forefront in the last five years? Ten years? Twenty? If we have to go twenty years or more to find anything NEW, then we have a problem.
WE HAVE A PROBLEM! What are our progressive positions?

What do we reach for beyond specific interest(s)? What is larger that we are reaching for? If the best we can reach for is pay back, promote a well established cause, or nominate the guy with the best chance to win, then we have a problem.
WE HAVE A PROBLEM! What are our progressive positions?

We have to go beyond winning an election, no matter how important the election. I know our anger is justified. We have to go further than just anger. I know our causes are important. We have to do more than defend. We have to aspire.

We have to reach for something more. How do we do that? We have to talk, to debate, to clash. To evaluate what we have done, what we are doing and how we are doing it. We need to set new goals, re-evaluate old goals. We have to look again at the very things we take for granted. And we might have to tear them down.

Shake them apart, knock them loose, clear it away. Radical? Crazy? Stupid?

Is it stupid for a black man to sit in the front of the buss?
Is it stupid for corporations to have to be responsible for the toxic waste they create?
Is it stupid for employees to take time off to recover from illness or injury and still have a job to come back to?
Is it stupid for a woman to vote, run for office, or be an executive in a corporation?

At one time or another a lot of people, most people even, would have said yes to these last four questions.
But some one, then some few, then some many stood up and broke apart what was and something better was built in its place.

Progress. Not easy. Painful, sweat, and often blood, soaked progress.

What are our progressive positions? To what do we aspire? What needs to be broken down, shaken up, torn apart, so that something better can be built? What do we take for granted or ignore that needs to be reevaluated?

Some say that the Democratic party is out of touch with the main stream. It is controlled by narrow ultra liberal special interest groups that are primarily interested in their agendas, more concerned with checking off lists of demands than with the party as a whole. Some say that the Republican party has been high jacked by the religious right and corporate interests that are more interested in their own power than with the health of the party, and worse, the country. There is too much truth to both of these beliefs. But here is our opportunity to renew the Democratic party and reach out to those set apart from us.

There are many Independents and Republicans who don't like what is going on. We, the Democratic party, need to offer more than a common enemy. The politics of personal destruction has to end, for the sake of all of us. There needs to be a vision, a hope that we can offer, not just for the party, but for the country as well. It cannot be a sterile list of objectives, like the Republican contract with America. It has to be organic, hard to define, something that grows as the more we think about it and the more we pursue it.

The country needs a fundamental change and the Democratic party could lead the way, as we have in the past. We need to seek a different way to interact with the government and with each other. The disenfranchised and disengaged have to have real encouragement to take part in the political process. We must look beyond our traditional supporters and find common ground with those currently dissatisfied with both parties. So, then, what are our progressive positions? To what do we aspire? What needs to be moved aside? What is our hope and vision?

There is one idea that has been put forth that could be our new vision. It could help us to think and see differently so we can find progressive positions and add to this country's great heritage. It could become a vision that we use to aspire to a prosperity beyond what we reach for now. It could highlight what needs to be changed and be our rally cry. In many ways it is a simple phrase, a catchy slogan. It could be trite, if we let it. But the idea has so much that it offers us.

A new American patriotism.

Barely four words.
What is it?
What does it mean?
What could it mean?

Wesley Clark's campaign web page calls it "... a belief that citizenship comes with responsibilities as well as rights. It's a strategy for national and economic security that invests in people while returning the country to a path of long term fiscal discipline." General Clark has a policy plan for pursuing this idea, but the new American patriotism only begins there. The greater part includes participation from us all.

It calls not for following a single plan, but for exploring different ways of engaging in democracy. It is an idea to be shaped, expanded and acted upon at all levels, from the private citizen to the federal government. It calls for an investment, in the people of our country, and by the people of our country. Like any wise investment, it demands discipline, fiscal and ethical, to ensure the return on our investments ultimately enriches the entire country. It declares that we will always have the will and the power to resist any attack on liberty from within or without. It challenges us to think and act with innovation against uncertainty and complacency.

Of all the questions I have asked, the two I realy want you to answer for yourself are: How do I define a new American patriotism? How will I answer its challenge?