Far and away my greatest concern and greatest frustration with the Democratic Party is their total and complete inability to frame this culture war with the Teabagging loons in any sort of epic or grandiose vision.
Instead, it's policy wonkitude and wishy washy statements of rambling, long winded blowhard nonsense.
That's not what wins hearts and minds. And it's certainly not what wins elections.
So this is a short diary to propose a simple catchphrase to summarize what the Democratic Party stands for. And is this:
The Sacred Promise.
Follow me across the flip as I explain how this simple phrase explains exactly the core not of what we stand against, as democrats, but what we stand FOR.
I love this phrase because it invokes a sense of holiness, an American exceptionalism that makes this country unique, and that is what we make a Sacred Promise to each other for the following basic ideas:
We hold a Sacred Promise that we will take care of our elderly in their retirement years with Medicare and Medicaid.
We hold a Sacred Promise to every American that Social Security will be there for you then, as you pay into it now.
We hold a Sacred Promise to our fellow Americans to respect their differences, whether Muslim or Christian, Gay or Straight.
We hold a Sacred Promise to our teachers and our firefighters and our police officers and our sanitation workers that they will have the right to organize for their best interests, and we will not take advantage of them to save a few dollars for rich tax breaks.
Every Democrat should repeat this simple phrase:
We believe in the Sacred Promises of America to its people.
Medicare.
Social Security.
School teachers.
Firefighters.
These are not "entitlements."
They are promises we have made to each other, and to ourselves, to better our nation collectively so that we may live free individually.
Republicans want to break these promises.
Democrats what to hold them sacred and honor them.
This is the language of 2012.
These are the stakes of this election.
Stop with policy specifics and explain the philosophy of what we, as democrats, believe in and stand for. A promise to our sickest, our weakest, our poorest and our most needy not to leave them behind to the wolves, but to raise them up to live in a better America that we can all participate in.