Good News for a Weary America

Mark 16:15- “...Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature”

Progressives are stunned when conservatives upbraid them about morality and virtue. In general, Progressives are very moral people. They subscribe to a belief system that advances human goodness and compassion. If ever there were a political movement that was compatible with Christ’s teachings, it is Progressivism. How can these conservatives believe that Progressives are immoral? Once the accusation is levied, Progressives are pressed into a defensive position. They are forced to argue topics which, in their own mind, should already be settled. Don’t conservatives know that Progressivism values freedom and justice and responsibility—the same values that conservatives supposedly cherish? Don’t conservatives realize that Progressivism is not only more compassionate, but works better in the real world? It’s the equivalent of a teacher trying to lecture about Shakespeare, but his students want to argue about the alphabet. What Progressives need to realize is that an increasingly large number of people in America do not believe that Progressive values are necessarily good.

How can this happen? Equality is written into the Constitution. Justice is a cardinal virtue. Responsibility is civic duty. Surely there can be a consensus agreement on those key values. No! Conservatism has done a brilliant job of shifting the debate on these issues. Talk about Freedom, and they’ll tell you about all the garbage that is spewed out of Hollywood, and they’ll admonish you for not having any moral standards. Talk about Equality, and they’ll tell you about the so-called reverse discrimination of Affirmative Action. They’ll tell you about all the good jobs that once belonged to whites that are now occupied by (in their minds less qualified) blacks. Talk about Justice, and they’ll tell you you’re soft on crime. These arguments are so obviously wrong to Progressives that they were allowed to slip in under the radar. We did not think that Americans would entertain the idea that Equality and Freedom are bad. Progressives were more focused on how to apply Progressive values to the world, and ignored the discussion about whether those values are actually good. After the constant bombardment of conservative messages on radio and television, enough people believed the perverse Regressive message that the debate shifted in their favor.

Progressives, listen closely. Red-state America does not believe that Freedom, Justice, Equality, and Responsibility are necessarily good things. They’ve become cynical. When you talk about Progressive values, they assume you just want to tax them to death and give all their money away to crack addicts. Does that sound ridiculous? Stop laughing, because that’s what they believe. It is not their fault. They have only heard from one side of the political spectrum. Conservatism does not believe in giving alternative ideas a fair hearing, so the only information they have about Progressivism is distorted by conservative filters. Can you blame Middle America for believing what they hear? The fault is not theirs, Progressives, it is ours. If we had made the same effort to get our message out as conservatives have, there would at least be an honest debate.

The Progressive movement needs more missionaries. It is not good enough to keep company with believers; Progressives need to take their message directly to unbelievers. There are large segments of the population that Progressives have simply given up on: Christians, rural whites, and upper-income business owners. Why have we given up on them? Progressivism is just as good for them as it is for minorities and women. Yet as soon as they start quoting scripture or talking about taxes, Progressives go into confrontation mode. Panicked, they invoke the separation of church and state, hoping it will ward off the dreaded religious discussion. Why? There is nothing about Progressivism that is incompatible with Christian beliefs. Many conservative Christians don’t realize that. Instead of reminding them that the church has no right to control the state, why don’t you tell them about the elements of Progressivism that agree with Christ’s message? Once they realize that it is OK to be a Christian and a Progressive, they will better understand the need for the church/state separation.

Progressives must re-train themselves to talk about their core values. For simplicity’s sake, I have condensed those values into four pillars: Freedom, Equality, Justice, and Responsibility. All Progressive policies are built on the foundation of those four pillars. Don’t just jump into, for example, environmentalist dogma. You’re talking to people who think that environmentalists want to shut down every business in America and plant flowers in their place. You may be astonished that you should have to convince people that they shouldn’t poison their air and water, but yes! You must! Get back to the basics.

To whom do you take your message? First, don’t preach to the choir! Petty bickering about the minutiae of Progressive philosophy between blue-state Liberals is a waste of time. Second, don’t worry about converting the hard-core reactionary right-wingers. Why would you bother arguing Progressive values with Rush Limbaugh? You’re not going to convince those people, because they have invested themselves so deeply in conservative dogma that they no longer think rationally about it. The people you are trying to reach are the poor, unfortunate souls who are intelligent enough to think rationally but are only exposed to the conservative message. If you look at polls that break down percentages of conservatives, moderates, and liberals, you will find a significant segment of conservatives who are “slightly” or “moderately” conservative. Those people are your best friends, Progressive missionaries, if you can reach them, and if your message is good enough, and if you can be as persistent as the conservatives, you can swing them your way.

I have not seen many attempts to reach these people. Plenty of Progressive groups exist for the purpose of “promoting Progressivism”, but how many people do they actually reach? Are they just lobbying for Progressive policies? Are they actually getting the message to people who have never heard it before? In Oklahoma, the reddest of red states, I have not detected any Progressive missionary effort. Perhaps there are some groups that are working on this approach, but to date they have been so far under the radar that they are invisible. For this reason, I have started a political action committee called OKWINPAC. We will not preach to the choir, we will not try to reach the unreachable, but we will do our best to get the Progressive message to those who most need to hear it. We will go forth into all the state and preach the four pillars of Progressivism.

If you wish to support OKWINPAC, please contact us at okwinpac@okwinpac.org. We are missionaries to or state. We do not expect to make a lot of converts immediately, but we will be as persistent as the conservatives. Over time, we expect to persuade enough people to change the outcome of elections in Oklahoma. It took conservatism decades to cause the damage, and it cannot be repaired overnight. We will mark this moment as the day that the healing began.

© 2005 Bryan Lower

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