EMOTIONAL POWER
What is our biggest problem as Democrats? Not energy, not enthusiasm, certainly not anger and frustration. What we lack as a political party, what holds us back endlessly, is emotional unity. Quite simply, we need an emotional home.
The Republicans have one. MAGA is a powerful emotional home, one that gives them a sense of belonging, a feeling of collective power and purpose, one that overwhelms logic itself.
What do we offer? What is the common emotional base that unifies all of us, that transcends all our differences. What is that something that inspires and makes being Progressive or moderate irrelevant, that goes beyond the issues of rural vs urban, or any of the other fracture lines that plague us?
We need that emotional home. And it has to be founded on the universally-accepted core values that underly all of our protests and movements and campaigns. We need a common emotional identity that proudly screams not only “I’m a Democrat!”, but “I’m and American, and I stand for the future!”. This is what will give us unity and inspiration, long after Donald Trump is gone. This is the message that will give us enduring emotional power with the American people, and change elections. And this message is the Democratic Creed.
All people are created equal.
Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity, for all.
A just society .. as long as it takes!
These are the kinds of words and ideas that inspire, that create vision. And they are ours, as Democrats and as Americans. We own them. This Democratic Creed of ours is founded in the Declaration of Independence. Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity spring from our party’s heritage as champions of social and economic progress. Now those values are written down and ready for action.
But a message is nothing if it is not heard. These phrases and ideas need to be repeated over and over, by each and every one of us. They need to repeated until they become our established identity, until these values become our emotional home. Repetition of lies and hatred is how MAGA built its dark empire. Repetition of emotional truth is how we take back America’s promise and its future. The message is true, and it’s easy to spread because these things carry the emotional power of familiarity. Every true American is steeped in them.
This is not instead of protesting, or campaigning. It is not instead of any of the other hard political things that so desperately have to be done. This is about empowering them. This is about why we’re doing them. This is about why we’re Democrats in the first place.
The first step is simple: reach out and adopt the Democratic Creed, individually or as an organization. Join our rapidly growing community across fifteen states, then begin to turn these things into emotional reality in your community. Share this message with Democrats, and with all those Americans who have not yet been swallowed up by MAGA. Contact us and let’s talk!
Now is the time to act.
