NC Progressives

Henry Ford summed it up best. “If I had asked people what they wanted,” he said, “they would have said a faster horse.”

As we remember Martin Luther King this week I am constantly inspired by his “I Have a Dream Speech.” This was one of the greatest speeches in American history as it masterfully delivered a vision for a new America. Not just a new America for the black community, but a new America for all Americans.

In my doctoral dissertation work at Duke, I studied Social Movements – how they arise and how they affect change. Vision is the key to ignite any social movement – the ability for a group to inspire change instead of manipulate it. But what is vision and what does it have to do with the state of the Democratic party today?

Vision is

• (1) describing a world that does not yet exist that will meet a real and urgent need of the people and
• (2) articulating the path to build this new world.

Vision is essential to human progress. So much so that the Bible even says, “Without vision, the people perish.” Why would they perish? Because in the absence of inspirational change and the challenging of the status quo, the powerful forces will run unopposed in this world – quenching the flames of hope for a better world for the common person. Hope, without vision, dies in the long night of despair.

Great leaders, like MLK, have had this ability to tap into the human consciousness and appeal to society’s highest aspirations in a way that creates a desire to live for something bigger than ourselves – a belonging to a larger cause, and a willingness to fight to bring this world into existence. People follow vision. Even when things get hard, vision for change is such a compelling force that it seems no sacrifice is enough to dim a light that has turned into the torch of a social movement.

Just look at the Civil Rights movement, the Women’s Suffrage movement, the French or American Revolution. All of these came at great cost, and all endured to create great change.

But what are the elements of a Vision? First, we need to understand “our why.”

One of the great books on business leadership is Start with Why, by Simon Sinek. Sinek argues that there are three elements every company communicates to their consumers: the What, the How, and the Why. He says that every company can tell you what they do. Many can explain how they do it…but very few communicate why they are doing what they are doing.

He says,

There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it. Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. By WHY I mean your purpose, cause or belief – WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?

People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.

We are drawn to leaders and organizations that are good at communicating what they believe. Their ability to make us feel like we belong, to make us feel special, safe, and not alone is part of what gives them the ability to inspire us.

Yes. Great leaders always start and end with “the why.” Not the How or the What – but the Why. This is what draws people in because the why is always connected to deep human need – the need to belong and the need to feel safe.

Here are the 4 elements that are necessary to clearly convey an inspiring Vision:

1. Call on history to set the foundation. Why do we exist? What are we founded upon? What is our “why”: MLK: “Declaration of Independence is a promissory note for Freedom”
2. The moment we face: Clearly lay out the challenge or the sacrifice that must be made but lays how this will better people’s lives: MLK: “America has defaulted on this promissory note”
3. Lay the path forward – the road we must travel and the difficulty that we tread
4. Conclude by returning to the founding narrative – our path is to push us in to new ground that strengthens our founding narrative – our why and what we can achieve if we do: MLK: “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last.”

But here’s the key: The Vision must be authentic through and through. It must be delivered by someone who genuinely believes it to a point of making any sacrifice necessary for it, and the people must know that everything that is being said comes from a place of authenticity. This is what fueled Barack Obama’s popularity and why Bernie Sanders is so popular – they are completely and thoroughly authentic.

So, what does this have to do with the Democratic party right now in 2025?

I believe now is the moment to reclaim our Why. We have become focused on the What and the How but these do not inspire people to follow us. Don’t get me wrong – the what and the how are important but they do not set the stage for a vision that will inspire people to follow.

In this past election we did not have a central and compelling why. We talked about “Saving Democracy” but that is not a compelling why because it’s not tangible to people. People have never “lost democracy” so they don’t know what that means. They haven’t experienced it so they can’t fight for saving something they have never lost before. Locally, we talked about “Stop the Supermajority” and “Stop Gerrymandering” and the need to focus on the court races. Again, the common person does not care about gerrymandering or a supermajority – they care about grocery prices, their kid’s future, their job security, health insurance, etc – real to life issues for them that they are facing on a day-to-day basis.

People know the pain of losing a job, they know the pain of not being able to pay rent – but they don’t know the pain of losing democracy – even if that is a vital threat.

Our greatest inspirational cry has become: “Don’t Vote for the Republicans.” “We must beat Republicans” “Republicans are bad”

While these all may be true – they simply do not inspire and they do not get people to follow.

Now don’t get me wrong. It is absolutely necessary for us to win the courts, to fight against the Republicans in court, to focus on the background mechanism of politics but if the background mechanism becomes our rallying cry we will never capture the hearts of the people. We will always have to depend upon people voting for us because they didn’t want to vote for “the other person.”

I’m not trying to be critical here. I hope you don’t hear that. I’m trying to help us win.

Republicans have a strong why and a strong vision – their “why” is that “We are losing our culture and we must fight for the preservation of our cultural values for our children.” This is powerful and it works. I’m not sure that Democrats understand how powerful this “why” is for them because a lot of Democrats loathe conservative Republican culture and therefore discount its power.

But I believe our moment is here and we have all the ingredients we need to change the world but it will take tremendous resolve.

Just look at what we have: We are the party of FDR and JFK and the great social visionaries who stepped out into the unknown to fight for the good of our nation and the economic wellbeing of the working class. We are the party of Grand Social Change and Bold New National Initiatives that are now bedrocks of our society.

But the American Dream has become an American Nightmare for the working class. With little hope for change they are stuck in a paycheck-to-paycheck life with little to no security, growing fears of our future, with little to no healthcare, and little to no opportunity for their children while they drown in stress and debt. All the while, the rich continue to hoard more and more resources creating for themselves reservoirs of wealth so powerful they are now buying the very government sworn to protect the common citizen.

I don’t think I’m being bombastic in saying that if the current trajectories of the rich continue for the next 10 years it will take a revolution to re-stabilize our society and that’s no good for anyone. Their share of ownership of wealth has at least doubled in the past 10 years and if it doubles again? Things are truly getting out of hand. The rich are literally sinking billions of dollars into elections and affecting the outcome for their own benefit and this is causing real life suffering to half of our nation. We should be absolutely livid about this – but we aren’t. Why? This is the true threat to Democracy!

But our task will not be easy – we will need to fight against the very force that we have come to rely upon – wealth. We can no longer align ourselves with Big Money that calls us to abandon the very principles upon which we were formed in order to obtain personal victory for ourselves. We must place our feet squarely beside the vulnerable of our day and fight for their future, even if it means that costs us our own political future. If so, so be it – we must do what is right no matter the cost.  

But our clarion call is clear – that America is built upon the foundation of liberty and justice for ALL and while we have missed the mark at times, we still strive to be the people we set out to be – a nation forged with the belief that all people have the hope of a better life to live and raise their children in safety and happiness.  Yes, America is a city set on a hill to be a beacon of hope, for all and it is time to rekindle that flame of a dream of a better future for all and be the people we are called to be – the restorers of broken dreams and broken roads – so that all may walk upon the road of justice and find a better future for themselves and their children. We exist to fight for the people – the vulnerable, the marginalized, our communities of color, the cast aside – the workers in the factories and the fields – to fight for the freedom of people to have security and a future so they can feel safe and cared for – our why is to lift up the voices of those whose life is being muffled by the powerful systems of exploitation, greed, and neglect.

This is our Why.

This can be our Vision.

Yes, it may be costly at first. Big Money will come against us with all that it has. But our future must be aligned with our past – to stand with the working class, the vulnerable, the marginalized and fight for them and with them for their future flourishing.

The moment is right. People are ready for new healthcare solutions. They are ready to save Social Security by eliminating the cap. People are ready to expose the corrosive power of Big and Dark Money in our political process. People are ready for the return of unions so we can demand higher wages. People are ready to believe they can have a better future again. All the polls show a majority of Americans support these issues.

We can be the party of Grand Social Change and Bold New National Initiatives again.

The people don’t need a faster horse. They don’t need a “tweak to the system.” People need a new solution – a renewal of what politics is. The people need a government for the people, by the people – not for the rich, by the rich.

I hope we can recapture our why. That we can recapture our vision. And that more and more leaders will arise with the authenticity and courage to declare this vision to the people. And that, together, we can create a movement that gives new liberty to those trapped in the grinding gears of the working class. If we will not fight for them, who will?

I believe with all that I am that this is the pathway for victory for the Democratic Party. And if we have the courage to step out onto these waters – the people will follow us.

The people will follow us.