THE BIG CHOICE

We recently invited all MoveOn members to join together and articulate a positive vision for our nation, based from the ground up on core principles. To kick off the process, members were asked to take an hour to interview each other about their fears and hopes for our country. People paired up randomly: folks in Maine called folks in Texas; nineteen-year-old college students called septuagenarians.

I've spent the last few days reading through the thousands of pages of reports from these thousands of calls. Read together, these interviews highlight the stark choice we face.

When we asked participants to talk about the values that the Bush Administration lacks, integrity, honesty, respect, compassion, and fairness were at the top of the list. Interviewees were furious at the duplicity and secrecy of the Bush Administration; so many of them mentioned lies that one could pick out the word scores of times on a single page.

It's no coincidence that these attributes occur together. The President's ideology is predicated on the idea that society is essentially a group of selfish individuals scrambling for power. Respect, compassion and fairness, in this view, are attributes of the weak: in order to "win," individuals must seize every competitive advantage. And truthfulness is less important than the appearance of credibility. Communications are just a means to an end.

What's the alternative? We asked folks what American values they resonated most strongly with. "Compassion, equality, fairness and respect," they responded. These also begin to shape a positive world view, a view based on the idea that collaboration and community build stronger societies -- that if we strengthen the bonds between each other, if we trust, respect, and empathize with each other, we will be more creative, more resilient, more fair, and ultimately more collectively powerful.

Political strategists like to talk about swing states and target demographics for voter turnout. These tactics are important, but it's also important to keep at least one eye on the big question: In 2004, do we want a President who believes in trust, respect, and community, or one who believes in power?