Real justice implies freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. These delicate entities cannot exist without wise and honest cooperation. They die on all shortcuts to gain or safety. And so they should. As Roosevelt emphasised in the four freedoms speech, "(t)hose who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Whether it be dubious war, compromised media, corruption in business and government, malignant materialism, sunk social security, or the unbalanced corporatism which sustains all these, the role of Democrats to work and ultimately prevail against such catastrophes is obvious. Democrats work for justice in every sphere of the nation’s life. Their method is intelligent voluntary cooperation and their ultimate resource is the simple decency of the average American. They have no other means for anything besides a false success. Nor might they ever lack sufficient means.

So why project any other image? People do not need shepherding via manufactured allurements or fears. That is the game plan of the Republicans, and one that would have failed had the Democrats not been spellbound by it. If a simple slogan is needed let it be similar to "fair empowerment". This reflects everything the Democrats have always stood for and is both timely and irresistible. (Something more catchy would of course be preferable, so long as it did not fracture or distort the concept.)

By now, or shortly if not, one is likely to feel browbeaten by the obvious. Yet to put it starkly enough to remember: excepting pragmatic details, Democrats need less ideas. The fundaments have been obscured. How often, for instance, do the following ideas appear on the congress/media radar?

National Security: The only safety is due care.

Morality: The equal right of all to freedom comes first.

Education: Culture is born of the difference between education and training.

Social security: Freedom from want is worth reduction in luxury.

So far the point is only soul-searching simplification. There can be no basic crisis in policy, unless treason is an option. The real crisis concerns the collective will of the Democrats to assertively pursue the following policies:

• Unadulterate civil liberty.
• Make the US a responsible member of the international community.
• Counterbalance corporatism by all moral means.
• Advance the status of women and the disadvantaged.
• Redress neglect of the environment.

In terms of legislation the following would seem easily deduced.

• Prevent unilateralism.
• Prevent the sanction of torture.
• Ensure fair elections.
• Protect outspoken journalists.
• Edit or delete the "patriot act".

Incidentally, does this list starkly reflect erosion of the country’s foundations?

Since we’re dealing in basics, all Democrats should cooperate with the grassroots revolution reflected by the internet and Dean’s ascent. When the media stops treating this ingress of reality into politics as a dismissible anomaly, centrists will lack the requisite illusion to vote Republican.

Simon Floth (si@suburbia.com.au) is a philosophy PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

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