We Are All from the Heartland
Veronica F. Adams
Political Professional w expertise in Training and Strategic Messaging.
I’m a proud liberty-loving liberal.?Many of my core liberal values were fostered in the small midwestern town in Michigan where I grew up. And, just like those of most people I know who are politically “left of center,” my ideals are rooted in the?best?of American values: My love for the?aspirational values of my country and my spiritual values, which align with the core Judeo-Christian teachings of compassion, generosity of spirit, welcoming of the stranger, and the pursuit of justice.?
Good for us! –But, here’s the thing, it’s not enough for?us?to know this, but the fate of our country and much more depends on helping those?beyond?our political base to see that this is who we are.?
And why is it especially urgent?now? From a pragmatic angle, let’s just look at the numbers. Well before the 2024 election, we need to build a vast coalition that will defeat and resoundingly push back the very powerful?anti-democratic?forces seeking to destroy the foundations of our democratic institutions and legal protections. As in, they must be removed from public office (and preferably back under their rocks). Certainly, until Republicans purge and rebuild their party into one that is committed to governance and policies that benefit the greater good, and until there are other viable third party options, democrats (and the progressives who caucus with us)?must?win election after election by overwhelming numbers.?This will require the support of centrists (Independents, swing-voters, and moderate Republicans), which is the nation’s largest voting block.?[1]
The left’s moral outrage with fists raised in the air alone is not going to get us there.?However, connecting with centrists on the level of shared values and showing that we aren’t so very different from them, will. Now, over my years of marching, canvassing, and working as a professional activist, I too, have found some solace from our “power to the people” slogans and banners and our armory of “facts-to-prove-our cases.” But we need to get it that these do?not?tend to move or inspire voters outside of our fold—the people with whom we most urgently need to connect.?
In fact, some of our rhetoric simply turns them off or?scares?them, especially when we hand-deliver many easily twisted sound bites to the Machiavellian right-wing media (aka: “defund the police”). We also lost votes and races expecting the electorate to educate themselves about the differences between “communism, socialism, and democratic socialism.” Some of the less than brilliant messaging like this coming from the left, particularly from the progressive wing, simply serve to reinforce the negative stereotypes about us that have been widely cast by the conservative propaganda machine.?We need to take stock of the ways that we have both contributed to and have?allowed?ourselves to be perceived and portrayed as “un-American.”?Although Centrists frequently agree with some liberal policies, this is a primary reason we have lost greater support from them. Our tone-deafness has allowed those beyond our base to suspect that not only do we not share their values, but that we look down on those for whom flag, faith, and family are core to their identities. This is a case in which?perception could not matter more.
“If the Democrats could take the opportunity of a political defeat to really reassess their language and style, the way they morally frame public policy issues, and their cultural disconnect with too many Americans including many people of faith, they could transform the political discourse.” --Reverend Jim Wallis, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong, and the Left Doesn’t Get It
How have we contributed to the negative perception of the left?
We need to S-P-E-L-L this out so clearly and frequently that it will be hard for?centrist?voters not to hear it. – Two key reasons conservatives have their messaging advantage? They use “frames” that help the words they use to create visual pictures in people’s minds, and b) they repeat, repeat, repeat.[2]?(To be clear, I am not referring to the far-right MAGA audience. Many agree that conservative brainwashing has been far too effective among them and if any of them are ever going to be reached, it won’t be by anyone other than fellow conservatives.)??Before more centrists want to hear about our positions and reasoning, we need to build a stronger foundation of mutual respect and trust. These voters must be able to relate to us as fellow Americans who are guided by many of the same values they share and understand. We must help them to see that we’re not so different and aren’t out to overturn everyone’s way of life as we know it. Owning whatever shared cultural touchstones we can claim will go a long way.?
“The greatest Republican manipulation was to frame Democrats as elitists, and Conservatives as down-to-earth realists who represent the average Joes.“ --George Lakoff, Don’t Think of an Elephant
My home-town values:?
A Young Patriot in the Making:?Like most children around the country, my identity as an American was carefully cultivated, and that was all right by me. I knew I was fortunate to have been born in the United States, a country with so much natural beauty, abundance, and so many freedoms. I was proud of our national ideals: “With liberty and justice for?all,” “All [humans] are created equal,” “And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.” In the annual Memorial Day parades, I enjoyed marching behind the American flag from our little downtown to lakeside cemetery in my green Girl Scout uniform with my sash proudly displaying the many “skill badges” I’d earned. Each morning at school, with my hand across my heart, I stood to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I happily lifted my voice to “America the Beautiful,” “My Country Tis of Thee,” “God Bless America,” and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and still know (most of) the words.??
Although glad to be an American kid, I was also not blind to some of the many ways we did not live up to our stated values. I was saddened as I learned about the ways we were hurting our wondrous environment. I was troubled by the nightly news images of the devastation and death in the Vietnam War, and I knew there was something wrong with the explanation our presidents gave that it was all about “fighting the spread of communism.” I was ashamed when I learned about our many broken treaties and the ongoing devastation of Native American communities. During the Civil Rights movement, my mother would take me with her to local NAACP gatherings. Thanks to her, I developed an awareness of some of the racial inequities in our country (to the extent that a young white child can). Still, I naively wondered why the small population of black people in our township lived on the outskirts. I now realize that my village, like so very many American towns, had likely been engineered to be predominantly white as a “sundown town”: whites only after dark.??
Yet, despite my growing awareness and disappointment that my country was not living up to the creeds we declared, I was still glad to be American. I knew that I was fortunate in many ways, and I hoped that when I grew up, that somehow, I could find ways to help us do better.
Sunday School and Heart:?In the local Presbyterian Church Sunday School where my mother served as one of the teachers, I loved hearing that God and Jesus love?everyone. I also sang in the youth choir there. After a big hoopla that the young liberal minister?dared?to play “rock & roll” in a Sunday service (aka, Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence”) and troubled by the mean-spiritedness and hypocrisy we both observed there, I was glad that she decided that we would leave. We then visited the Methodist Church a couple of times. But, having no stomach for that minister’s hellfire and brimstone sermons intended to?scare?the congregants into “faith,” my mother decided not to return. I was glad that our Christian church days in our town were over. Even at 10, the idea of someone dying for my sins and alleviating me of my responsibility never sat quite right with me.
But unkind, hypocritical behavior and manipulative theology aside, what stuck with me was the simple heart of the Judeo-Christian teachings that I learned both in Sunday school and from my mother: the preciousness of all (God’s) creatures great and small, love, compassion, charity, service, truthfulness, integrity, forgiveness, and justice. I’ve been a spiritual seeker ever since, exploring various world religions, including their similarities related to teachings about the invisible bonds between and responsibilities between all of us. This eventually led to my earning a Master of Divinity degree.
We do not have to be Christian to acknowledge the ethical foundations of that tradition. When Christian believers ask me if I’m Christian, I tell them that I try to be a follower of Jesus’ teachings. And, I add, wouldn’t the world be a better place if more people tried to care for the poor, welcome the stranger, and treat others as they would like to be treated? (They nod.) And then I say that, although I don’t accept all of the theology (I leave it at that; no details necessary), I do try to follow his teachings as best I can. –And they are as happy as can be that I have affirmed “their guy” and know something of the teachings — even if I may be a “liberal.” I have just helped them to see the quality of my character and to establish some shared values and common ground.?
Honoring our families and heritage:?The term “family values” can be code for a lot of intolerance, bigotry, and sexism. But it can also stand for some good things that most of us can appreciate. I enjoyed the holiday traditions with my small family, and in hindsight, I can even reminisce fondly about my grandmother’s (Nana’s) “interesting” Jello salad concoctions. It gave me a sense of roots and belonging seeing the last name of my great-great-great grandparents and their offspring on street signs, at a local cemetery, and on the town history museum. Playing in the woods and riding my bike across town to swim at the “beach” at a town lake all felt ordinary and safe. –There were a couple of what seemed like “seedy” bars on a certain block, but it was easy enough for a kid to pass by them and know nothing of the world inside.?
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So yes, my family values include an appreciation for family traditions, honoring our ancestors, an appreciation for the feeling of safety within one’s home and community, and for young people being allowed to just be kids without predatory adults stealing their childhoods.
How liberals?may?be different –Many of us are still idealistic about the aspirational values of our country and our spiritual responsibilities to one another:?
It’s ironic that “love it or leave it” came from those belonging to the party of “family values”. Is “Love ’em or leave them” what these same people would say when it comes to “fighting” for our marriages and other solemn commitments? If we find some of our partner’s behaviors to be destructive or otherwise unacceptable, or we’re feeling somewhat disillusioned and less “in love”? Obviously, they would say no.?When you really love something or someone, you fight?for?them to be the best versions of themselves and to fulfill their promise..
I’m just as “Apple Pie American” as anyone else in this country. But, here’s what may be a core difference between those on the left and others when it comes to “American values.”?When I was a kid, in reference to people who were protesting the Vietnam War, I remember the widespread conservative slogan: “Love it, or leave it!” Their point was that it was “anti-American” for one to dare to question our government’s policies, foreign in particular. But then, the practice of some demonstrators burning the American flag only fueled that perception even more–and it’s been held against us for fifty years.??
Although saddened as a child to realize that, as a country, we were not living up to our stated ideals, I still believe in “liberty and justice for all.” As disgusted as I am by the?anti-Christian and?anti–humanity?rhetoric of so many supposed Christian leaders and churches, I still believe in the core teachings of Jesus and the desert prophets before him about the ills of greed and about putting compassion first. And despite that the banner of “family values” is often used as a front for belittling and controlling women and for the demonization of those who do not fit within the narrow definitions of marriage and family – I will continue to do what I can to make sure that families, whatever they look like, have the resources and support they need to nurture their children and keep all of their generations healthy and thriving.??
Most of us know that the forces of selfishness, greed, and the pursuit of power all do not concede without being pushed. Those of us on the left need to help others to really see that when we protest, we are not rejecting the core values of our country. Far from it. In actuality, we care so much that we keep pushing our nation to live up to our stated shared ideals.??
Liberals and progressives must to a far better job at making our values more explicit, not only to help build a broader coalition. It is incumbent upon us to do what we can to help bridge the cultural divides, which will also help to “lower the temperature” that the recent hate-filled country song is only a symptom of. As the late Unitarian minister Reverend Forest Church (son of the late Senator Frank Church) wrote in?God and Other Famous Liberals, those on the left?need to reclaim the?values?that the symbols of the flag, the Bible, and the family represent,?to whatever extent this is true for each of us.?Just like “making peace” with parents who have disappointed us at times, we need to make peace with the cultural touchstones that, to some extent, helped to shape our identities.?
Our commitment and ability to shift the widespread perceptions that we are anti-American, godless, and anti-family is going to make or break us.?We need to stop relinquishing many of our key cultural symbols because we don’t like the way that others have twisted and sullied them or because we’re bitter that our country isn’t living up to its stated values.
To be very clear, I am not talking about getting into the absurd and futile practice of “proof-texting” that fundamentalists love to justify and base their prejudice and oppression on. The Bible, written and “edited” over centuries is all over the map on a range of topics. That being said, we can focus on the two “greatest laws, above all” that Jesus referred to and that many on the left have internalized: Love God (which can also mean the sacred spirit of life that animates all that lives) and?Love thy neighbor as thyself.??
I actually think it would be a perverse kind of fun to “out-patriot, out-spiritual, and out-family” the MAGA crowd. “Having so defiled their actual meanings, right-wingers have nothing but empty symbols to wave around.?We need to help others to recognize the passion we share for the ideals of our country – ideally using some of the symbols and language they know. In order to do this, each of us needs to drill down and recall the positive influences that helped to shape our human, social, and political values, so we can frame and share our stories. We were all shaped, to some extent, by “small town values,” even if we did come from the “big city.”Help others to see us as the “true blue, red-blooded” Americans we are. The multi-cultural coalition we must build to save this 240+ year American experiment depends on it.? ??
[1]?On December 17, 2020,?Gallup?polling found that 31% of Americans identified as Democrats, 25% identified as Republicans, and 41% as Independent.[5]?Additionally, polling showed that 50% are either “Democrats or Democratic leaners” and 39% are either “Republicans or Republican leaners” when Independents were asked, “do you lean more to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party?”[5]
[2]?Don’t Think of an Elephant,?by neuro-linguist Dr. George Lakoff, first published in 2004.
[3]?The Pew Center estimates that in 2020, about 64% of Americans, including children, were Christian. People who are religiously unaffiliated, sometimes called religious “nones,” accounted for 30% of the U.S. population. Adherents of all other religions – including Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists – totaled about 6%. In 2019, a Pew study found that 65% of American adults described themselves as Christians while the religiously unaffiliated, including atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular”, is 26%. According to a 2018 Pew report, 72% of the “Nones” have belief in God, a higher power, or spiritual force.