Democrats steal from Republican Playbook

Democrats, liberal Catholics promote 'common good' as a unifiying theme in Nov. elections

The Associated Press Published: October 16, 2006

NEW YORK One phrase stands out in Democratic speeches leading up to nationwide elections on Nov. 7. The term "common good" is catching on as a way to describe progressive values and reach religious voters who rejected Democrats in the 2004 election. Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak on the idea in Washington this week. Other democrats are also using the phrase. Ned Lamont uses it in his Connecticut Senate race. Bob Casey Jr., Pennsylvania candidate for Senate, put it in the title of his talk at The Catholic University of America — then repeated the phrase 29 times. Led by the Center for American Progress, the liberal Washington think-tank spearheading the idea, Democratic activists hope the phrase will do for them what "compassionate conservative" did for the Republicans — win the party control over both houses of Congress. Democrats need to pick up 15 seats in the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are up for election. They need to gain six seats in the Senate, where 33 of the 100 seats are on the ballots. "It's a core value that we think organizes the entire political agenda for progressives," said John Halpin, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. "With the rise of materialism, greed and corruption in American society, people want a return to a better sense of community — sort of a shared sacrifice, a return to the ethic of service and duty." The phrase is not the sole domain of liberals. Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, who faces Casey, a fellow Catholic, in November, wrote a book last year titled, "It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good." Under Roman Catholic teaching, promoting the "common good" would include opposing abortion — a position both Santorum and Casey embrace — and opposing gay marriage to protect human dignity and the family. Catholics comprise about one-quarter of the electorate and are an important swing vote. "Common good" Democrats are generally changing how they talk about abortion on the campaign trail, calling it a tragedy to avoid rather than a private issue. Still, activists say they do not want to tie the phrase to a laundry list of hot-button policies. Instead, they intend to convey a broad philosophy of governing with a positive appeal. "We really feel that it speaks to the central moral challenge of our time," said Alexia Kelly, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, an advocacy group that formed in 2004 and is distributing voter guides this year. "Our religious traditions call us to that deeper vision of caring for all, being in it together, not a go-it-alone culture," said Kelly, who has worked for the U.S. bishops and served briefly as a religious adviser to 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. "I think it's important that it crosses faith traditions." Tom Perriello, a co-founder of the Catholic Alliance, said the approach would help end what he sees as a self-defeating practice among progressives: Many treat religious Americans as a constituency that needs special handling, instead of crafting a message meaningful to all voters, he said. But he acknowledged that the strength of the "common good" as a unifying theme is also a weakness. The term is so broad it's hard to define and can be misinterpreted as a call for "big government," Perriello said. "The question right now is who is going to define it," he said. The idea came up in meetings among Democrats and faith groups after the 2004 election, when the party felt blind-sided by voter enthusiasm for the Republican rhetoric on conservative "family values" and was frantic to solve its religion problem. Exit polls showed 78 percent of white evangelicals voted for President George W. Bush. Bush, a Methodist, also won the Catholic vote 52 percent to 47 percent over Kerry, who is Catholic. Around the same time, The American Prospect, a liberal policy magazine, ran articles by its editor Michael Tomasky, and by Halpin and analyst Ruy Texeira, urging the Democrats to develop a clear vision of the "common good" so Americans know what Democrats stand for. Tomasky drew on political philosophers, and Presidents James Madison and Franklin D. Roosevelt, among others. But the term also conveniently tapped into a guiding concept in Catholic and some Protestant traditions. It can be found in many papal encyclicals — a pontiff's most authoritative declaration — most recently in Deus Caritas Est, the first encyclical from Pope Benedict XVI, who wrote "the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply." The twin sources of the idea can be seen in who is adopting it. From the political left, the Campaign for America's Future, which has worked with the liberal activist group MoveOn.org and the major labor union coalition, the AFL-CIO, released an "Agenda for the Common Good" in June. Mara Vanderslice, a religious outreach director for Kerry's presidential campaign, formed a political consulting firm last year called Common Good Strategies to "help Democrats reframe the national religious debate." The Casey campaign in Pennsylvania is a Vanderslice client. Analysts credit the term "compassionate conservative" with helping Bush win over Catholics concerned with personal moral issues as well as social problems such as poverty. "Common good" advocates hope for equal success.