The Answer to the Democratic Party Dilemma of What to Do to Defeat Trump and the MAGA Movement

A few months ago, I did a Google search for “Preserving American Values.”  Many state and local Republican Party organizations came up in the search results because they use that phrase in policy documents.  Not a single Democratic Party organization showed up in the search results.

Then the other day, as I was looking for a new platform for this blog, I entered the title "Preserving American Values" and the sub-line: "Our nation stands under attack ... from within not without.  Both our politics and culture have been corrupted."  And this one platform, using AI, designed a whole new blog.  There was one big problem—the new blog was a MAGA site!  AI had assumed because of the words I used that I was a Trumpist, a MAGA adherent.  Talk about proof for the following argument.

I have for the past 2 decades—since writing the book, We Still Hold These Truths—argued that the Democratic Party should embrace America’s founding documents—the Declaration of Independence and Constitution—as the basis for their policies, making it their Mission statement.  That they should rightfully wrap themselves in the flag.  But they have not followed my advice.

Instead, it is the MAGA Republicans who have embraced the phrase “Preserving American Values,” cherry-picking those that they choose to advocate.  While Republicans have always wrapped themselves in the flag, claiming to be more patriotic than Democrats, they have now taken this a step further.  

This broader approach probably was influenced by Matthew Spaulding’s 2009 book, We Still Hold These Truths, excoriating liberals for perverting the country’s conservative founding values.  Given that I wrote a book of the same title in 2004, arguing that our foundation documents were decidedly liberal, not conservative, I disagree with him.  FYI, Spaulding was Vice President for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation for 2 decades.

By not tying their policies to our founding documents, Democrats have left themselves open to Republican criticism for being “elite”, somehow un-American, and not supporting the working man. 

Whereas in actuality, it is the Republicans who have always sided with the true elite—large corporations and banks—in their policy priorities. They have never been for the common man.  Donald Trump certainly talks the talk, but so far he has not really walked the walk.  Instead, he has surrounded himself with billionaires whose only interest is in enriching themselves and their class.  He has done little for the average American.

It is past time for Democrats to expose Trump and MAGA Republicans for what they are … hypocrites masquerading as the party of the people.

I will say once again what I've been saying since I wrote my book in 2004: Democrats must fight for the hearts and minds of the American people by creating a vision for America that the American people understand, one that they get.  A centrist liberal vision that speaks to all Americans, that does not pit one segment against another. And this includes corporations; they have a vital role to play, but they cannot to be allowed to control government or act against the greater good.

Luckily, there is a vision that is as American as apple pie; that every American knows by heart: the words of the Declaration of Independence.  I therefore proposed in 2004, and have since, that the Party adopt a Mission statement based on the words of the Declaration of Independence that brings all these policies together in a coherent message:

“To build a country of greater opportunity where:

• each and every American has a real chance to experience the promises made in the Declaration of Independence: 'that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness' ;
• government meets its responsibility as set forth in the Declaration—‘to secure these rights’—; and
• all citizens have a shared responsibility to support the government’s efforts to secure these rights and promote the public good, each according to his ability.”

The longer Democrats wait to wake up to the reality of how they have allowed themselves to be perceived, the longer they and this country will suffer under the so-called leadership of Trump and his Republican allies.