Ezra Klein and the NYT Editorial Board agree; the Democrats need to become a big tent party to win elections. That means tolerating opinions on issues such as trans rights, gun control, and abortion that are anathema to progressives. But the tent can become so big that the party ceases to stand for anything. What blue team values are non-negotiable?
Here is a tentative list:
- America should subscribe to the MLK/Obama vision of a multi-ethnic liberal democracy that welcomes people of all races, religions, and sexual orientations.
- Discrimination on the basis of religion or immutable characteristics is wrong.
- The current welfare state should be protected to the maximum extent possible.
- We should be looking to create the economy of the future, not to recreate the economy of the past.
- The immigration system should be humane as well as orderly.
- America should maintain good relations with other liberal democracies in order to leverage its strength against hostile authoritarian states.
- America should remain a liberal democracy. The party must resist efforts to create an authoritarian state.
That’s about it. Everything else is open to debate.