A renewal of the founding promise of democracy in America.

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DemocraticPromise.org is a project dedicated to renewing the promise of democracy in America by building on the strength of America's founding principles. We reach out to all citizens, regardless of political party, who want to support a true democracy of shared authority, mutual accountability, and respect for individual initiative, in American government and throughout American life.

How it all began

The presidential campaign of Howard Dean, with its references to Thomas Paine and the American Revolution, crystallized an idea: Today's liberals and progressives are the heirs of America's founders. We are the protectors of America's founding values of democracy, freedom, and opportunity. With this flash of inspiration, liberals have begun a critical cultural turn: to become promoters of a way of life rather than just resisters or protesters, to become revivalists of the promise of genuine democracy in America.

As efforts to repeal elitist Republican policies have failed again and again in recent decades, we have come to recognize that it is not enough to fight against what is wrong, we must say what we believe is right. In 1990, Republican political analyst Kevin Phillips wrote in The Politics of Rich and Poor of the historical tendency of liberals and progressives to reactively allow Republicans to set the national agenda rather than proactively setting our own. For forty years the proactive agenda of radical conservatives has beaten the reactive—sometimes defensive, sometimes accomodating—politics of liberals. Moreover, their proactive agenda has created an image of radical conservatives as people who believe and who have a plan, versus liberals as people who believe nothing and have no plan other than to "Stop" things.

What we can do

Now we are going to start something. It is time to speak and write and lobby for our own values, to initiate our own agenda. Our values are the founding values of the nation, and our agenda is to pursue policies which promote genuine democracy and broad prosperity. The Promise is one example of how we, as progressives, can put forth a clear statement of our founding values and participate in shaping our nation's future.

A new era, built on a strong foundation

In the real world, values flow from a wellspring of historical events: moments in history which test us, awaken our spirits, give birth to a new horizon of hopes and ideals, and redefine us as a people. Such beginnings are sacred to persons of all cultures and become anchor points for a society's deepest beliefs. America's founding was just such a sacred beginning.

DemocraticPromise.org contends that America's founders gravitated to governing values of freedom, opportunity, shared authority, and shared responsibility, because these values alone could bind together the new nation and give it the strength to succeed. Today's progressives gravitate to the values of America's founders because we share these same ideals and recognize in them the same strengths. This is our foundation.

The era of Democratic and Independent leaders who abandon their constituencies values and drift to the right in search of votes is over. And the era of voters who call themselves liberal but support the most center-right candidate they can find, just to be on the safe side, is over. It's time to talk about our beliefs and stand by them. If we lose an election, we don't lose our values and start looking for more popular ones. Values are for the long term. And this project is for the long term. The heritage and the infrastructure of our American democracy are extensive and invaluable. We will reclaim and rebuild them together. Read the Promise, and find out how you can get involved in Participation.