Our Principles
Workers before investors, co-ops and small businesses before megacorps
Too often politicians act as if their responsibility is to create jobs by luring business interests, regardless of the quality or security of those jobs. We don’t need more jobs that wear us down mentally and destroy our bodies. We don’t need more jobs with unreliable hours or that leave us little time for our own lives. We don’t need more jobs offering little long-term stability, disappearing at the whims of the rich. If you’ve worked in a large corporation you know how wasteful, frustrating, and dehumanizing they can become as the company grows in size. Why then are such megacorps given such support?
Small and medium businesses are where the private sector best serves the interests of our communities, without the risk of too-big-to-fail or monopolies stifling innovation. They’re also where workers have the most individual influence, enabling them to fight for better wages, safety, and ethical behavior. Admittedly, it is difficult for any state to shape corporate behavior when so much is currently set at the federal level. Yet existing laws didn’t stop the Republicans from chipping away at abortion rights through persistent experimentation and sheer stubbornness. So too must Democrats pursue a worker-first agenda: passing laws that promote unions and worker-owned businesses, giving local companies every advantage against megacorps, and threatening to have the state itself compete in crucial markets in order to ensure the people are reaping the benefits.
Expertise over opinions, diversity over nationalism
The Right has been attacking academia, the scientific community, and even the concept of education for decades and it is past time Democrats rose to the defense of expertise itself. This means not just supporting teachers and universities, but celebrating institutions like the Maryland Department of the Environment and empowering them to act even when opposed by business interests. It means rebuilding local journalism and treating propaganda, whether from a government or corporation, as dangerous to our society as diseases or natural disasters. We simply cannot stand by any longer while our sense of shared reality is shredded for profit and power.
At the same time we must always remember the limitations of our individual perspectives and knowledge. Celebrating diversity isn’t just about supporting individual expression and preserving cultural roots, it’s recognizing that justice for all cannot be achieved when those with power look and think the same way. Our aim is not a society or legal system blind to our differences, but which grows better from them. Most importantly, we must admit that attempts to create a national identity are often the first step in deciding who counts as a “real” American in order to later justify discrimination and oppression. You are an American by virtue of being in this country and participating in this grand project. You are a Marylander by living peacefully as part of our communities and allowing others to do the same.
Healthy bodies and environments
It is natural to feel concern about the contents of the food, water, and air we consume, especially as industrial processes become more complex and our choices become limited due to market consolidation. Generations were harmed by asbestos, leaded gasoline, and now plastic pollution. The traditional strategy of waiting long after the damage is done to launch investigations, cleanups, and lawsuits is insufficient to dissuade polluters and has already been factored into their bottom line. We need to empower journalists, researchers, and state inspectors to proactively study the products and supply chains of large companies. And when harmful or otherwise unethical behavior is found, should those responsible employ the tactics used by Big Tobacco and Big Oil to muddy the waters we must make the punishment far worse than if they had just admitted to wrongdoing.
Yet no amount of oversight now will resolve the continual crisis of global climate change. Too much time has been wasted debating whether the planet is heating up (it is), who was responsible (Big Oil and Gas), and whether anything can be done about it (obviously yes). We owe it to our children and their children to bend all institutions towards ending the emission of carbon and other greenhouse gases, even if it slows the economy. We have seen significant economic shifts in response to wars and pandemics, so it is not a matter of possibility but of political will. Fortunately we’ve already made major improvements in green technologies that will support our current way of life, and solar power is now so cheap it’s simply absurd energy prices are skyrocketing. If we had put the full force of the state behind transitioning our energy sector a decade ago the affordability crisis wouldn’t be so bad today; we simply can’t afford to wait any longer.