Progressive Values

Pundits declare that there is one overriding lesson from the 2004 election: Progressives need to embrace "values." But what does that mean? Some suggest that to win the next election, we must move to the right on social issues and wave our religious beliefs like a flag.

That's nonsense! There is nothing we can say or do to appeal to the most conservative voters, and we should not abandon our principles to try. But there are millions of voters who voted for conservative candidates while preferring progressive policies. Consider the Floridians who narrowly preferred Bush to Kerry but overwhelmingly endorsed a constitutional amendment to increase the minimum wage.

The problem is not that progressives lack values. The problem is that we do a poor job of identifying and communicating our moral principles.

This is crucial because most voters don't select a candidate based on a laundry list of issues. The majority of Americans are looking for a person who shares their values, someone they can relate to and trust to represent them. Citizens have to rely on their elected officials to make thousands of unpublicized-even secret-decisions. So it is reasonable for voters to scrutinize the entirety of a candidate's character.

Progressives need to draw the lines of illustration more clearly. We need to explain how our issues illuminate the good character-the values-of our candidates. In other words, we need to communicate how progressive policies are based on principles that the majority of American voters share with us.

For more than a decade, the Center for Policy Alternatives has been promoting values-based leadership for state legislators. In collaboration with these legislators, we have developed a brief outline of the three pillars that support our common vision. We call it a Progressive Declaration of Values.

For the Model Declaration, click here. For an in-depth discussion of values, click here.