A year and a half ago, The Opportunity Agenda embarked on an ambitious effort to elevate social justice values, problems, and solutions in the 2008 presidential election cycle. In particular, we sought to make two crucial ideals, Opportunity and Community, front and center in public and political discourse around the campaign. Opportunity is the idea that everyone should have a fair chance to achieve his or her full potential; it is an idea inextricably linked with the American Dream. Community is the notion that we share a sense of responsibility for each other; that we’re all in it together and strongest when we leave no one behind. Community values are the essence of our national motto, e pluribus unum, “from many, one.”
The Opportunity Agenda has promoted those values across social issues, from education to living wages to the integration of immigrants to health care to family farming, identifying the practical solutions that uphold our core ideals. We have worked in collaboration with hundreds of social justice leaders, organizations, and everyday folks, and in a particularly strong partnership with the Center for Community Change and its network around community values.
Our effort has included research on American values, public opinion, framing, and media discourse; communications tools and training for hundreds of advocates, organizers, faith, and political leaders around the country; outreach to mainstream and ethnic media; new media advocacy, from blogs to YouTube, to MySpace and Facebook; and message support to the Heartland Presidential Forum: Community Values in Action, co-sponsored by the Center for Community Change in Des Moines, Iowa, ahead of the caucuses.
Our effort is strictly non-partisan and does not embrace any candidate or either party. We believe that a long-term campaign to move hearts, minds, and policy must cross partisan boundaries.
Last week, as the Democratic National Convention came to a close, we were able to see real progress in moving the political discourse. Opportunity and Community were very much “in the house” at the Democratic convention. Indeed, the theme of the convention—renewing America’s promise—had deep roots in the narratives of Opportunity and Community. We’ll be analyzing the Republican convention at the end of this week.
At an important part of the convention speech, Obama combined the values of opportunity and community: “Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work. That's the promise of America, the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation, the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper.”
This linkage of opportunity and community was carried by numerous speakers earlier in the week. In his keynote, former Virginia Governor Mark Warner explained, “We believe that everyone should have an opportunity to get ahead, and with success comes a responsibility to make sure others can follow. I think we are blessed to be Americans. But with that blessing comes an obligation to our neighbors and our common good.” Warner continued, “So you give every child the tools they need to succeed. That means quality schools, access to health care, safe neighborhoods. Not just because it's the right thing to do, of course it is; but because if those kids do better, we all do better. You can be soft-hearted or hard-headed—both are going to lead you to the same place. We're all in this together. That's what this party believes. That's what this nation believes.”
Senator Clinton similarly brought our two core ideals together in her speech to the convention: “You know, America is still around after 232 years because we have risen to every challenge in every new time, changing to be faithful to our values of equal opportunity for all and the common good. And I know what that can mean for every man, woman, and child in America.”
In addition to promoting the values that we must strive toward as a nation, The Opportunity Agenda, CCC, and our partners named the failed ideas and attitudes that we must overcome. We explained in talking points and in trainings for organizers and advocates in Iowa and around the country that, too often, politicians have told the American people “You’re on your own.” They have engaged in a politics of isolation and division instead of taking on our common challenges.
Last December, the eventual Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, echoed that narrative from the stage at the Heartland Presidential Forum. Senator Obama said “it is important for America that we realize responsibilities not just for ourselves, but for each other. That we’re not in this on our own. And we’ve had an administration over the last seven years that tells us that ‘you’re on your own.’ We’ve had businesses that say, ‘what’s in it for me?’ instead of ‘what’s in it for us?’ And, as a consequence, America has been weaker and the American Dream has been slipping away.”
Eight months later, in his acceptance speech at the convention, Obama echoed that theme, as he has many times since Iowa: “In Washington, they call this the ‘Ownership Society,’” Obama said, “but what it really means is that you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck, you're on your own. No health care? The market will fix it. You're on your own. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, even if you don't have boots. You are on your own.” Well, it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America. And that's why I'm running for president of the United States.”
Linguist George Lakoff, appearing on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show over the weekend, commented on the framing of the convention.
The shift in political discourse is encouraging, and represents a stark change from the 2004 convention cycle. But it will be up to all of us to make them real; to let both parties know that these values matter, and that they are more than rhetoric. They correspond to concrete policy priorities, like guaranteed affordable health care for all, a pathway to citizenship for America’s immigrants, living wages and fair labor protections, investment in schools and college access, and a criminal justice system that promotes prevention and rehabilitation. Changing the political discourse is an important start. But it’s just a start.
Next week, we’ll report on values and the Republican convention.
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