What It Means to be a Democrat

By Michael Merrifield, Colorado State Representative

A lady I know, a Republican – a life long Republican - will not be voting for Bush again in 2004.
“The Clean Air Act is not clean,” she says. “The conservatism is not compassionate, the Patriot Act is non-patriotic, No Child Left Behind leaves public school children behind with its dedication to vouchers and tests, and Healthy Forests is a euphemism for ‘healthy profits’ for the mining and timber industries.”
“The Republican Party,” she observes, “has been shanghaied by the zealots of the right.”
I agree. While we Democrats are not without our shortcomings, at least we attempt to recognize them and to stay true to our mainstream principals. We believe, as FDR said, that “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
We abide by Andrew Jackson’s creed of “equal opportunity for all, special privileges for none.” We believe that public education is the cornerstone of the American dream. We share LBJ’s commitment to civil rights and Jimmy Carter’s devotion to human rights. We believe that government programs should be grounded in the values most Americans share: Family, work, personal responsibility, individual liberty, faith, tolerance, diversity, cooperation and inclusion. We support a woman’s right to choose in matters of her reproductive health. We believe in an ethic of mutual responsibility in which government has an obligation to create opportunity for all citizens, but citizens have an obligation to give something back to the community. We believe in being wise caretakers of the planet on which we live.
I also believe that there are many Republicans – such as the friend I just mentioned – who share these beliefs. Sadly, and frighteningly, their party has been taken over by the zealotry of the radical right.
It takes very little thought to be a zealot. In fact, thinking is anathema to zealotry. Zealots replace reason with self-righteousness. They make extremely effective campaigners and advocates and difficult opponents. How do you debate those who are convinced that God is on their side, that they have the one and only answer, and that they have the inside track to God himself (and certainly not herself!)? This zealotry is what has brought forth legislation in the Colorado General Assembly such as the “In God We Trust” bill, the Pledge of Allegiance requirement, the denial of emergency contraception information for rape victims and next year’s debate over whether to create a quota system for conservative professors at our public universities. It was also behind the Republican efforts in Texas and Colorado to redraw congressional boundaries…a zealous attempt to stifle debate and dissent. It is certainly behind Representative Davie Schultheis’ demand that all legislators sign his so-called “Defense of Marriage Pledge.”
What has happened to the Republican party nationally, and even more frighteningly, in El Paso County, reminds me of an old, but pertinent Saturday Evening Post article by Vance Bourjaily in which he states: “Disapprove of me as you will, but to try to give your disapproval the force of law is a crime against freedom.”
That’s the danger of zealotry: it jeopardizes, rather than protects, freedom. It’s a harder task by far to hold firm against the wave of zealotry than to catch the wave and ride it to political power. Democrats, progressives, and yes, thinking Republicans such as my friend, must have the courage to fight the tide until it turns. We must be passionate, not zealous….patriotic, not jingoistic….spiritual, not dogmatic.
As Democrats, we believe that NO party has a monopoly on virtue, righteousness, truth or wisdom. That recognition and the doubts that come with it are the price we pay for our ability to reason and our willingness to do so.