“Democrats have to say what we’re for, not just what we’re against”
WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) joined historian Heather Cox Richardson for a livestreamed conversation on Friday to talk about the importance of opportunity, security, and justice, and how Congress can address the historic challenges posed by Donald Trump’s presidency. The interview aired on YouTube, Facebook, and Richardson’s Substack, “Letters from an American” – the single largest solo political newsletter on Substack.
During the interview, Senator Coons discussed his framework for a future policy vision for the Democratic Party, following up on his essay in Democracy Journal on the subject in December. He also discussed how an opportunity, security, justice framework could work with an issue like immigration and highlighted the importance of commonsense immigration policies to contrast with President Trump’s unpopular crackdown.
See more below:
Key excerpts:
- “Trump ran on lowering people’s costs, making America healthy again, releasing the Epstein files, and no new stupid foreign wars. And, bluntly, he is failing on all four of those. He is losing popularity because they had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to release the Epstein files. This action against Venezuela, and threatened actions against Colombia and Greenland, are making MAGA Republicans more and more alarmed.”
- “I think we have to find a way to position ourselves as a party that says, ‘We welcome, and value, immigrants that come here legally. We welcome, and value, refugees who are vetted and come here and contribute. And we want to celebrate the fact that this is a country of refugees, and of immigrants, and that’s made us richer, and more robust, and successful, and more diverse. We can’t win the race for AI – we can’t be a successful, productive, country – without high-quality people, without people of a wide variety of backgrounds from all over the world coming and contributing their skills and talents to the future of our nation.’”
- “If we can deliver a coherent, clear, agenda on opportunity and security, I think we then get the chance to talk about what makes us Democrats, which is justice. There is a core difference, I think, between Republicans and Democrats, over a long period. Republicans focus on liberty, we focus on justice. Liberty means smaller government, fewer regulations, lower taxes. At least as Republicans historically talked about it. Justice means addressing racial injustice, gender injustice, ways in which our system has not worked for millions and millions of people, hasn’t included them, hasn’t seen them.”
- “You’ve got competing ways there of delivering security. You can deliver security by cracking down on dissent, by saying we have to have masked ICE officers, by saying you can’t question or challenge what you see on the video – which is that she was driving away, not driving toward. You just have to trust us, and let us crack down. You can deliver security that way, but you can’t deliver justice. Democrats support police. We don’t want to defund the police. We want qualified, capable, law abiding police that have community support. We want to deliver security through justice. And that’s a difference that’s foundational for how Democrats want to address this. We also, frankly, view immigrants as contributing to our country, being a vital part of our history and our culture. Being a beacon for those seeking refuge from oppression and violence overseas defines one of the most important threads that run all through American history.”