About a year ago, I began something I called “The Values Project”. I decided to try to identify the core values held by Democrats, and to communicate those values to help with the public perception of the Democratic identity. It was a fairly simple project. At the time, I was recruiting Democratic candidates for the Alaska State House and State Senate, and I incorporated the Values Project into the recruiting process. In each interview, I asked potential state candidates about their values. I also posed the same question to state party leaders, candidates for national office, Democratic donors and rank-and-file members in my home district. As another exercise, I had attendees at a fund-raiser write lists of their values, and I compiled their answers. In time a pattern became apparent, with enough similarity between individuals that I could list a number of core values. Although individuals expressed their core values using different words, after some reflection, a small number of key concepts emerged as uniting principles.
I began The Values Project after reading George Lakoff’s book “Don’t Think of an Elephant”. The book, along with others by Lakoff, advises Democrats to communicate more about values instead of issues. Drew Weston’s book “The Political Brain” makes many of the same points. Weston documents conservative successes and liberal failures in communicating with voters. Conservative successes are linked to simplistic emotional appeals. Liberal failures often involve technical discussions of policy, rather than establishing an emotional connection to voters. Obviously, the values that establish that emotional connection between the Party and the voters need to be authentic, meaningful and valid.
The conversations about values were some of the most
interesting and rewarding I’ve had in many years. Some individuals described just one or two
deeply meaningful personal values (“integrity” or “kindness”), while others had
well-considered, multidimensional and prioritized sets of values. A few individuals needed to be coaxed away from
talking about issues (“education and health care”) to the idea of values
(“fairness and opportunity”). But once
people became engaged with the idea of values it was interesting to see how
they converged on many of the same concepts.
From that input, I created a set of core values in roughly prioritized order. Each core value included a set of similar ideas, representing different facets of that core value. I first organized the ideas into sets using common themes. (I later found that gathering sets of related ideas into a set of core values is a process recommended by values consultant Scott Jeffrey.) I then wrote a proposal to amend the State Platform as a resolution for my Democratic House District group. Friends in my home district contributed the first of several rounds of editing, improving the organization of the values and the clarity of the proposal.
Kindness – empathy, compassion, generosity, care.
Truth – integrity, honesty, accountability.
Equity – justice, fairness, democracy, diversity,
respect, human dignity, equal opportunity, intentional inclusiveness.
Service – work ethic, productivity, humility.
Progress – economic development, science, technology,
social development, economic opportunity, better life.
Responsibility – responsibility to others, obligation
to leave a better world for the future, stewardship of human, natural &
financial resources, responsibility to nature for its own sake.
Ethics – high standards of personal and collective behavior.
The Democrats in my home district proposed a resolution to
the State Platform Committee to add these values as a Preamble to the State
Democratic Party Platform. After two
more rounds of editing and word-smithing the proposal, the Preamble was added
to the State Party Platform by unanimous consent at the 2020 Convention.
Personal Views
I disagree with a few of the changes made in the editing process. The core value of kindness was reframed by editors as empathy. To me, kindness is an action, whereas empathy is a feeling. Empathy might be a motivation, but kindness is a superior value. I might feel empathy for refugees, but unless I take action to provide them with shelter and food, I have failed to make their lives better.
Also, I originally included a value for protecting nature for its own sake. This concept was folded into responsibility, but protecting nature for future generations is not the same idea as protecting nature for its own sake. We should hold the value of protecting the natural world without regard for its utility to humankind, and I’m not sure that is clear in the final document. But in general, the editing process improved the list of values, and helped the members of the Platform Committee take ownership of the values statement as their own.
The final version, the Preamble to the Platform of the Alaska Democratic Party, is shown below.
Values Not Included as Unifying Democratic Values
Some of the values expressed by the people I interviewed
included “community” and “family”. I did
not include these in the list of Democratic values, because I thought that they
were not necessarily among our uniting Democratic values. These values are simply human values, and
would certainly be among the values listed by conservatives or
Republicans. In particular, it seems to
me that “Community” is an exclusionary value, suggesting that we only care
about those of our own kind, in our own place.
I thought that Democratic values should be inclusive, and we should care
also for the refugee, the immigrant, and the outcast.
There were few suggestions about faith as a core value, although there are
clearly people of deep faith in my cohort of Democrats. Still, faith is not a uniting value for
Democrats. Rather, we are inclusive of people of faith and people who do not
hold religious beliefs.
Patriotism also does not appear on this list, although Democrats are clearly
patriotic and love our country dearly.
Nevertheless, it is not among our uniting values. Democrats care about people, first, above our
country. Democrats also care about
people who were born outside of our borders, as well as people who were
fortunate enough to be born within our borders.
We also recognize our responsibilities to the global community and the
world environment, and hold those responsibilities equal to our dedication to
our own nation.
So, although we do value our communities, families, faith and patriotism, I did not regard these as uniting values for Democrats. I think if Republicans went through a similar exercise, these values would be included as core values for Republicans. The caveats I listed above are the meaningful differences between the parties. In general, the Democratic Party holds inclusiveness as a core value, while the Republican Party seeks to exclude all but the privileged conservative community.
Accountability
The prominent documentation of these values as the Preamble to the State Platform provides a mechanism for accountability among members of the Party. Office-holders, candidates, party leaders and the rank-and-file can now be held accountable according to the standards that we have set for our collective values. This is extremely important as the Party works to win hearts and minds of the voting public. Joe Biden and Ibram Kendi have both spoken about the battle for the soul of America. Stating our values, and being accountable to our values is surely essential to winning that battle.
Contrast with Republican Values and Actions
These Democratic values contrast sharply with Republican
values as evidenced by the actions of various Republican state legislatures, the
Republican Congress & Senate, conservative judges, conservative media, and
especially of the Trump administration. It may be that Republicans would claim to
hold some of these same values, but their actions belie adherence to these
standards or to the plain meaning of the words.
- Consider kindness. The Trump administration separated children from their parents and kept children in confinement in conditions that were substandard for prisons, as a way of deterring illegal and legal immigration to the United States.
- Consider truth. The Trump administration has lied daily about matters large and small, from claims about the size of the inauguration crowd to claims of fraud in the 2020 election. Conservative media should win a prize of ignominy for relentless distortion of truth.
- Consider equity. Republican organizations and governmental units have worked tirelessly to suppress voting by minorities, youth and the elderly. They have enacted unreasonable barriers to voter registration and voting, closed voting locations, forced unreasonably long lines for voting in minority neighborhoods, obstructed voting by mail, gerrymandered districts, etc., and etc. If there was a way to obstruct voting for Democrats, Republicans have tried it.
- Consider fairness. Republicans have enacted a tax plan where unearned income from investments is taxed far less than wage income. And where increasing wealth from unrealized capital gains may never be taxed at all.
- Consider financial responsibility. Republicans have run up huge Federal debts, placing a burden on the next generation, and impairing the ability of the government to deal with crises.
- Consider environmental responsibility. Republicans have deconstructed environmental protections for wilderness and wildlife, and supported development programs which are damaging to the environment. Republicans have denied the science of climate change and the responsibility for the consequences of our greenhouse gas emissions.
- Consider progress. Republicans in the Trump administration, in Congress, and in conservative media have denigrated science and application of science for public health and the protection of the environment. This denigration of science is a step backwards, toward the dark ages. This disregard for science is at the junction of the values of truth, responsibility and progress, and Republicans are on the wrong side of all three core values.
This is just a short, off-the-cuff sampling of how Democratic values differ from Republican values. I could write about these differences all day. Truly, the difference between what is good, proper, and right, versus what is heinous, shameful and wrong could not be clearer than when you compare Democrats and Republicans on the basis of their values.
Conclusion
So, what does the Values Project mean? I think it helps to definitively set down the
guiding principles and values of an organization. It establishes who we are and why we advocate
for our issues. It provides a basis for
accountability for those who work against our values. And it provides a stark contrast to our
political opposition, for all to see. In
working on this project, I was helped immensely at every step of the way by the
ideas of other people. It is truly a
composite of what other people said to me.
At the same time, I was involved at every step of the process, and was
able to influence the scope of the proposal. My own personal values include the idea of
legacy – my own contribution to making a better world. In some small way, the Values Project is a
good contribution. I am quite pleased
with the result.
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Preamble to the Platform of the Alaska Democratic Party
The Alaska Democratic Party, through its candidates for elected office, seeks to govern responsibly for the benefit of all Alaskans. In governing, we are guided by certain shared values that are the foundation of our party; the policies we champion in this platform are grounded in these shared values:
Empathy: We believe that we and our leadership must
express empathy to others. Empathy is expressed as compassion, kindness, and
generosity.
Truth: We commit ourselves to truth, integrity,
honesty and accountability, as individuals, in our actions as a Party, and in
how we govern.
Equity: Equity is expressed in fairness, justice,
democracy, intentional inclusiveness, equal opportunity for all, human dignity,
diversity, and respect.
Service: Our purpose as Democrats is to serve the
public. As members of the party and as elected officials, our service is shown
by our work ethic, productivity, and humility.
Progress: We believe in human progress to make a
better world. Opportunity, economic development, science, technology, and
social development are part of our mission to create a better world for all
people.
Responsibility: We resolve to leave a better world for
those who follow us. We must pursue policies that ensure our resources – human,
natural, financial – are managed for the sake of benefiting both current and
future generations.
Ethics: Our personal conduct should express the values listed above. We challenge ourselves to achieve even more than those who went before, and leave a legacy of a more just, equitable, and successful society.
This is who we are. This is why we come together as Democrats.
Enacted by the Alaska State Democratic Convention, May,
2020.
