Looking Back, Looking Forward (Page 7)

The defeat of John Kerry, combined with the Republican advances in the House and Senate, has unleashed waves of dismay and perplexity within liberal and progressive circles. What happened? Why did so many voters embrace a President whose Iraq policy was paved with lies and deceptions, who has shown contempt for science, the rule of law and many of the principles of the Enlightenment, and whose economic policies favor the rich at the expense of the vast majority of Americans? What lessons do we draw from Kerry's failure to win over the electorate in spite of the Bush Administration's conspicuous failures? Are the Democrats crippled, or merely wounded, and is the party really out of touch with "mainstream" values? Finally, what should the priorities of the progressive movement be in this era of Republican dominance, and what is the best formula for future electoral success? The Nation asked some of the country's leading political activists and intellectuals for their thoughts on one or more of these questions. Their brief essays follow.   --The Editors

DANIELLE ALLEN

FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH, said George W. Bush in the presidential debates. He's right. For the past forty years, rightward-leaning political thinkers have been developing rigorous accounts of the human and economic value of political liberty and arguments about how to secure and protect that liberty. Coherent theories of liberty developed by the likes of Milton Friedman's and Leo Strauss's fellow travelers gained precision and force for being targeted responses to Soviet totalitarianism and communism.

But what about the Patriot Act? How can that be reconciled with a description of the Republicans as the party of liberty? The pursuit of liberty reasonably requires the reasonable pursuit of security, but the unmediated pursuit of liberty and security easily evolves into pursuit of dominance, whether at home or abroad.

By what, then, might the pursuit of liberty reasonably be mediated? By the pursuit of equality.

Democracy depends on both liberty and equality, and a constant, messy struggle between these two ungainly and not perfectly compatible fraternal twins. To the degree that this country now divides into red and blue states, the red states are those where, of the two ideals, liberty leads; in the blue states, equality leads, despite the fact that the party of equality has not lately offered any particularly convincing philosophical accounts of the human and economic value of equality, nor clear arguments about how to protect equality. (When John Kerry wheels around a debating stage and, after surveying the audience, says, "I suspect there are only three people here who are going to be affected: the President, me and Charlie," it's not even clear that the party of equality is the party of equality.)

Liberals and progressives need to get back to the hard work that precedes policies and slogans: thought-work. We need a thorough, theoretical defense of the foundational status of equality in democratic life.

Freedom has always been on the march in this country. Equality has had more difficulty gaining its own foothold. Now is the time.

Danielle Allen, author of Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship Since Brown v. Board of Education (Chicago), is professor in the departments of classics and political science and a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

BETH SHULMAN

IN THE WAKE OF THE ELECTION, we Democrats do not have to go looking for moral values. We merely need to articulate a vision of America based on the moral values we already believe in--fairness, opportunity and respect for others. It is a moral issue whether or not a child has healthcare, whether a family has quality childcare or whether parents have enough to feed their children or send them to college. It is a moral issue that we give tax breaks to the rich when millions of Americans go hungry or can't afford a doctor's visit.

For too long, we have been on the defensive. We need to define an America of hope rather than fear. We need to champion the economic concerns that matter most to Americans--a living wage, healthcare, educational opportunities and time to be with one's family. We need to champion a government that represents not the top 5 percent but all hardworking Americans who struggle to provide their families with the basics of a decent life.

We need to continue to push at the state and local levels to bring changes that help working Americans. Initiatives to raise the minimum wage and provide healthcare won handily in states that went for Bush. Yet while we should build on coalitions formed during this election, we cannot just talk issues and policies. Without a clear vision of America based on the values we believe in, we will face another Republican victory. Voters do judge issues through a moral lens. But if the other side is the only one articulating a vision, we will continue to lose. John Edwards began a conversation about "the two Americas." The Democratic Party needs to continue that conversation and set forth a bold agenda based on values that will insure economic opportunity, fairness and prosperity for all.

Beth Shulman is the author of The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans (New Press). She is a lawyer and consultant and is co-directing the Fairness Initiative on Low-Wage Work.

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