This is the first in a series of efforts to articulate in broad terms what it means to be a progressive or liberal in Pennsylvanian and Philadelphia today.
Democrats and Republicans have many differences on particular public policies. Underlying those differences, however, is a deeper difference about how we look at politics and what we think it is for.
I want try to explain the key difference between us.
Let’s start with slogans. We Democrats believe “We’re all in this together.” The Republicans believe “Everyone for themselves.” Our motto is “We get by with a little help from our friends.” The Republican motto is “I’m all right, Jack”
We Democrats are the party of community, of people standing together. The Republicans are the party of individuals standing alone. That is not to say that we are opposed to individuals taking care of themselves or following their own path in life. Quite the contrary. We Democrats are consistent defenders of individual freedom and individual initiative. And we think that the best kind of community is a diverse one. But we also believe that individual freedom and diversity are best sustained by a community of a particular kind.
The other side looks at us as a collection of individuals. Indeed, the most consistent right wing leader of our time, Margaret Thatcher, once went so far as to say that there is no such thing as a society, there are only individuals.. We believe just the opposite. We believe that individuals who live lives that are fulfilling and meaningful can only be found in a good community. We believe that to a very large extent, we stand and fall together. We are, that is, all in this together.
The Importance of Individuality
Republicans are only sometime defenders of individuals. They don’t approve of individuals whose ideals and desires stray far from the mainstream. They think the goal of education is conformity. And they believe that all the community needs to make us individuals is to get out of the way.
Far more than the Republicans, we encourage individual men and women to choose the way of life and belief that best suits their individual nature and genius, even if it is a way of life far different from our own. And we welcome diversity because we believe that in every sphere of life—from government to business to education to the arts—the interchange of different views makes for better decisions, for creativity, and thus for progress.
It is precisely because we value individuality and diversity that we insist that people not be discriminated against on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex, or sexual orientation. That is why we welcome the free expression of all views. That is why we favor education that challenges children and young adults to learn to think for themselves. We have enough confidence in the ideals this country is founded upon—and in the good sense of our citizens— to believe that at the end of the day the truth will survive the most rigorous challenges.
And it is also because we value individuality and diversity that we want to give every person a good start in life. The greatest tragedy we face as a community—whether in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or the US as a whole—is the lost of the talents and initiative of so many young people whose lives are stifled by poverty, by disordered communities, and, far, far too often, by murder.
Individuality Needs Community
So, while we favor individuality, we also believe that people don’t become individuals by themselves. Human individuality and creativity has to be nurtured, protected, and encouraged by the community. We can’t follow our own path in life if we are not brought in a safe environment, if we do not have adequate food or housing, if we don’t get the health care we need, and if we don’t have the educational opportunities to nurture our own talents and abilities.
So we Democrats are supporters of strong community for because we think that many of the good things we want in life as individuals can only be secured if we work together. We are in this together, in this first sense, because we need goods that can only be secured through common efforts.
We are supporters of strong communities for a second reason as well. While we favor individual freedom, we also believe that a life lived only to serve ourselves or our immediate family is a life that has not reached its full potential. We believe that¸ for most of us, our lives are most meaningful when we can find some connection with others, when our goals reach beyond ourselves. We are all in this together, in this second sense, in that most of us find that life is worth living only if we have a deep connection to one another.
So our politics aims not only at securing the common goods we all need but also at developing the strong connections we all need to feel part of something larger than ourselves.
I will examine each of these source of our emphasis on community in turn.
The Good Things We Enjoy In Common
Look closely at many of the good things we American enjoy and you will see that it is not just individuals but the community as a whole that has made them possible. I could give ten or twenty examples. Here are two of them.:
Economic Growth, Education and Support for Families
We Americans are justly proud of the economic achievements of our country, of our high standard of living. We often credit our prosperity to the work of individual entrepreneurs—from Henry Ford to Bill Gates. But creative businessmen did not make us wealthy by themselves. Our high standard of living would not have been possible without the efforts of millions of American workers who were more productive because they received a free, public elementary and secondary education. And, when America brought millions of immigrants to our shores to work in our growing industries, our communities provided not just schools, but a wide range of social services and programs to help immigrants and their children become integrated into the economic and political life of their cities and towns.
Education is still vital to our economic well being. Our higher education system is second to none in the world. A higher percentage of Americans receive college degrees than anywhere else in the world. Our economic achievements today rest in large part on the college educated workforce and the basic research that comes out of our universities. And once again, these achievements are in large part due to communal support. For private as well public colleges and universities are highly dependent upon federal and state support, which come in the form of aid to students and grants for research.
Equality of opportunity has always been important in America not just because of our commitment to equality but because we all benefit when our young people can make maximal use of their skills and talents. That is why right wing Republican unwillingness to address growing inequality and the shameful conditions in which so many children are brought up in our cities today is a problem for all of us. Look at thirty percent of our young people, the troubled kids in so many of our urban and rural area. These are children whose lives are marred by crime, poverty, third rate education, and, in many cases, teenage or single parents who are not prepared to care for them. They are our future. If we do not raise their prospects, if we do not integrate them into the mainstream life of our society, our economic future is as imperiled as well, and we will all suffer.. When it comes to our economic future, then, we are all in this together. We will rise or fall together.
Health Care
Health care is another area where our achievements are largely due to our common efforts and our failures result when we limit those common efforts.
For those with health insurance, medical care is America is second to none in the world. Again, we are likely to credit the individual achievements of the owners of businesses and their workers for the good health care received by those with private health insurance.
The truth, however, is that the success of our health care rests on our common efforts. Business provided health insurance, after all, receives a substantial tax subsidy. And a substantial part of the population—and everyone over 65—receive good government provided health insurance. Moreover, we could not provide good health care if we didn’t spend enormous amounts of federal and state dollars on training doctors and on medical research.
The problem with health care in the United States is not, as radical right-wing Republicans tell us, that we have too much common provision but that we have too little. We can see this, first by looking at how many of our largest businesses are being undermined by the escalating costs of providing health insurance to active and retired workers. Their competitors in other parts of the world do not have to worry about health insurance because it is provided to everyone in common.
We can also see our inadequate common provision of health care if we look at that doctors and hospitals and individuals who overwhelmed by the failures of our current insurance system. Somehow, hospitals and doctors have to care for so many Americans who have no health insurance. This patchwork system leaves millions of people without the care they need and tens of millions without the preventive care they need, preventive care that might reduce health care costs in the long run. Doctors and hospital also have to deal with all the incredible complications of a private health insurance system that force them to spend hours negotiating to get their patients the best care.
Those of us who have private health insurance right now may think that we are in good shape even if others are not. But the truth is, we are hurting, too. Every year, our insurance costs increase faster than inflation and our benefits are cut back a little. And all of us suffer when rising health care costs damage our economy.
All these problems arise, because we have not realized that, when it comes to health care, we are all in this together. The only way make to sure that everyone has health insurance is to have common provision of health insurance. Only a national health insurance plan will include everyone; make sure they get care they need, including preventive care; and reduce the administrative burdens our insurance system.. In other democratic countries health insurance costs much less because the administrative costs of a health insurance program that includes everyone is far less than the costs of private insurance. Again, we are all in this together. We either provide important goods like health insurance to everyone or none of us will get the health care we need.
Similar arguments could be put forward with regard to many other issues, with regard to planning for development and public transit, with regard to environmental concerns and so on. But now, however, let me turn to the second point: We are all in this together because a connection to other people is critical living a meaningful life.
Community and the Search for Meaning in Life
The Importance of Living Beyond Ourselves
There are many ways to feel successful in life. Some people place value on their income, wealth, and possessions. Some think of themselves as successful because they care for their spouse and / or children. Some take pride in their professional accomplishments.
As we grow older, however, we begin to feel that our own individual accomplishments and achievements, or even those of our own family, are not what give our lives significance or meaning. We want to believe that our lives have a purpose beyond what little we have accomplished ourselves.
For many people religion, and the connection they have to God, provides that sense of meaning. But, typically, a relationship with God, while an end in itself, does not stop with that relationship. For, no matter what religion one follows, God always asks for something more than a connection to us as individuals. Rather, God asks us to express our love for Him in our relationships with one another. To love God is to love and care for one another, both as individuals and as members of a community.
I have been writing in religious terms here, because that is how most of us in America give our lives a sense of meaning and significance. Yet even an agnostic or atheist can feel that what gives meaning to our lives is something more than our individual accomplishments and achievements. Individual accomplishments and achievements that don’t connect us to others, that do not contribute to people beyond ourselves, are not accomplishments and achievements that last. They don’t last in the minds and hearts of others, or even in our own mind and heart.
What does last is a sense that we have done something in our lives that meant something for the people with whom we live, that has made the lives of others better, that has helped many people beyond ourselves, that has helped everyone recognize not only that we are all in this together but that we can count on each other to help us attain our common goals.
So what ultimately distinguishes Democrats from Republicans, liberals from conservatives, and progressive from reactionaries is that we want to provide opportunities for people to act in common and contribute to the common good, not just because of what get by means of such action but what we get by being involved in such action.
We progressives want to help our fellow citizens recognize that citizenship is not just an opportunity to receive but also to give. It is not just a collection of right but a set of obligations. To be a citizen is not an individual status but a communal one.
Lessons of the Twentieth Century
In the middle of the twentieth century we liberal and progressives sometimes forgot this lesson. Some of us thought common goods could be provided by bureaucrats guided by experts. We have learned since that even when we can trust bureaucrats and experts to want to do what is best for everyone, we can’t trust that they will know the common good. We have come to realized that common goods have to be defined by and provided in some part by our own efforts. And we have also learned that the most important common good, the right to take part in governing our common life, will wither and die if it is not actively used. So today, we liberals want to reinvigorate our civil life by engaging people in their common affairs and in grassroots politics.
Because we believe in freedom we progressive do not want to force people to recognize more than the minimal obligations of citizenship, to obey the law and pay our taxes. But we want to provide opportunities for individuals to become members of a community. So we encourage citizen participation in politics, in community affairs, and in providing aid and comfort to those who need our help. We do this not just because this is the most effective and efficient way of providing the common goods we need but because it is the only way in which we can become members of a community that gives us a purpose beyond ourselves.
Conclusion: Our Ideals
So in two related ways, we really are all in this together. And, if we want to have the goods and the meaningful lives, we need, we had better recognize it.
The first way we’re all in this together, the common goods we need, is more obvious. Everyone knows that health care and education—and decently planned cities, and public transportation, and a hundred other goods, are important to us.
But the second way in which we’re all in this together, our need to be part of something beyond ourselves, to overcome our limitations as individuals by connect our hopes and dreams to that of others, to is ultimately more important.
The Republicans like to criticize what they call our values. Yet the core value, or better, the ideal we hold is as old as the Biblical notion that we are all God’s children and as new as the efforts of so many of these children to collect money for UNICEF instead of candy on Halloween. Our core ideal is a commitment to work on behalf of one another not just ourselves, to care for one another not just ourselves, and to love one another as we love ourselves. That ideal is not one that we can truly hold without trying to make it real in our own political activities and in the kind of common life and government we seek to create.
Education, health care, strong neighborhoods, and a growing economy are some of the common goods we need. But, even more than these goods themselves, we need to work and fight and struggle together to create them.