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AMC NATIONAL OP-ED - November 11, 2004

AMC comment on election:
The Democratic Party

By Eric Vikers

It should be disturbing to Democrats and to all Americans that some within the Democratic Party are now calling for a shifting of the Party towards adopting in some form the so-called “moral values” of those credited with electing President Bush

However, rather than gravitating towards that 22% of the electorate which ranked moral values as first in choosing the president, the Democratic Party should mine its working class ideological base from the 20% of the electorate which ranked the economy second in importance, and expand its moral base from that 15% of the electorate which feels that the war in Iraq is the issue that matters most.

This is the real constituent base of the Democratic Party - social justice. The various groups that prior to the Reagan era were thought of as core Democratic constituencies – blacks, minorities, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants – became allied with the Democratic Party because it enabled their quest for social rights and advancement to manifest in the political arena. But they are just core constituents, not the Party’s heartbeat.

The Republicans were skillful this election in picking off a fraction of each of these constituent groups to add to their conservative base. But the message of an economy that is steadily producing a widening gap between the haves and have-nots, and of a war the whole world knows is unjust, beats on.

It would be a setback to the social progress this country has shown mankind for the Democratic Party to adopt a philosophy of reflecting, rather than molding, the mindset of Americans. There was a time when the American mindset was adverse to rights for blacks, unions, women, and the poor. The Democratic Party was the political instrument that helped change that

The American system of governance needs a potent political party to advance a national mindset that gives priority to equalizing economic rights and getting us out of Iraq. Rather than defer to the conservative’s moral values, the Democratic Party needs to help define America’s.

Eric E. Vickers is the Communications Director of the American Muslim Council.