Mark Winston Griffith

Democratic Family Values

There is arguably no more tortured and absurdly used word in the world of political punditry than "values". This was made obvious in two news items that emerged over the past week.

On the one hand you have David Brooks crowing in his January 26 New York Times op-ed that, in the wake of their demoralizing presidential defeat in 2004, the Democrats have discovered that "[m]iddle-class Americans feel social anxiety more acutely than economic anxiety because they understand that values matter most". Brooks reasons that the Democrat's portrait of America "as a society divided between comfortable haves and insecure have-nots..., the people against the powerful" has "notably failed".

At the same time, there was the report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute finding that the disparity between the rich and poor is increasing in this country, with New York State claiming the largest gap between the "haves and have-nots."

How does one reconcile these two?

It's hard to deny that those of us who talk about the increasing pressures on low- and moderate income families, and decry unbridled corporate power, are becoming more and more marginalized in public conversation. While Democratic hopefuls like Hillary Rodham Clinton are doing the electric slide to the political center, everyone is afraid to use the word "poor" without first slapping the validation sticker "working" in front of it. The notion of fighting poverty has been stripped of any critique of capitalism and replaced in some circles with the politically acceptable narrative of "building assets".

The problem is that it's hard to find common ground or debate "values" with someone like Brooks, who, in his column, first finds it acceptable that one in four women living in America is poor or working poor, and then in the same breath goes on to talk about the need to restrain male selfishness.

There is a simple and powerful call to morality that has yet to be well articulated by the Democratic party, a call that points out the "culture" of greed, self-indulgence and hedonism practiced by team Bush and its corporate backers. Remember the arrogance displayed by Bush in his remarks at a 800 dollar a plate dinner in 2000? ""This is an impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elites; I call you my base."

People of progressive persuasion can successfully wave the "values" banner, but on their own terms. "Family values" should include providing economic security for struggling families (not to mention creating quality, affordable health care for all and supporting any union between two loving adults. In fact, while we're at it, let's re-appropriate terms like the "sanctity of life" and "the culture of life" to include the lives of death row inmates, pregnant women, as well as all military personnel and civilians in Iraq).

No matter what your religious belief or political affiliation is, policies that widen the gulf between the rich and poor should be exposed as immoral and indefensible.

Mark Winston Griffith: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 5:13 PM, Jan 29, 2006 in Middle-class squeeze | Progressive Agenda
Permalink | Email to Friend | Comments (2)