A Road Map from Jesse Jackson

Jamelle Bouie's article in Slate got me to thinking about how we build a stronger Democratic Party at this juncture in history. In recent campaigns, most politicians have built laundry lists of issues where each issue has an appeal to some subgroup of the voting population. But what they haven't done is make it clear how all those issues support one another and how all the subgroups need to support one another to get their particular issues addressed. The successful candidate must take seemingly disparate progressive agendas and knit them into a whole picture that include all of his or her constituents.It's like sewing a quilt in that each scrap of cloth is not really useful in itself. Yet when securely sewn together, all those scraps make up something extremely useful and even beautiful.
Candidates at each jurisdictional level should make a clear-eyed assessment of the needs and interests of their voters. Then they must make the case that in order for that variety of needs to be satisfied, all the various groups have things in common around which they can unite. Business is good when workers have the wages to buy things. Schools are good when the community takes the time and resources to support the children and the system that provides that education. People feel more secure when law enforcement has earned their respect. The institution of democracy is stronger for everyone when a few very wealthy people don't have the power to dominate campaigns and the crafting of legislation.