A year ago today, Rants and Reasons and Action Left launched shortly after the release of Dwight Furrow’s Reviving the Left: The Need to Restore Liberal Values in America. The book argues that liberals must develop a moral identity that prioritizes care and facilitates social trust in order to create the conditions necessary to respond to the needs of others. Furrow explains:
This is not primarily a book about economics, policy or political strategy, though it has implications for all of these. It is a book about the foundations of morality and how our reigning political ideologies misunderstand those foundations.
These misunderstandings have become painfully obvious over the last year. As much of the excitement that drove President Obama to the White House dims, conservative ideologues and their media cronies continue to scare and lie to the public, all in the name of “saving” America from socialists and brown people.
This battle over America’s moral identity demands a sustained commitment to care that can redefine the country’s sense of self. As Furrow concludes:
A commitment to care for the quality of…public life is our national identity. To be a real American is to make that commitment.
Here’s to another year of renewing this commitment together.
