I loved this ad.
Friends are quibbling that it's not "revolutionary" enough, or that it's too generic, or that the way it openly invokes patriotism makes them feel uncomfortable.
But I think ads like this are exactly where the conversation needs to start in this moment.
Patriotism is the first, most essential idea that progressives need to recapture. Once we dominate that piece of the narrative landscape, a million other things become possible. The GOP has left that flag unguarded for over a decade, and we've been much too reluctant to swoop in and grab it. This ad grabs it, and waves it. Most of America is hardwired to pay attention to that. There IS a civic religion, and it's there for a reason: it tells the basic stories that make democratic governance of this huge and motley lot possible.
Biden invokes a national "we" -- the idea of a unified "America" that has a common identity, a common story, and a common future. That's a powerful antidote to the current climate of polarization and fracture that is now, quite literally, killing us. We are under threat, together; and we are facing that challenge, together.
There are really only two conflict narratives: person against person or nation against nation (the war narrative, which valorizes warriors); or the person or nation facing down a huge existential challenge (the nurturing narrative, which valorizes those who can competently build solid systems that keep the challenge at bay). We are really fortunate to be in a crisis involving the latter. If the world has to break open, it's far better to have it broken by a catastrophe that demands us to solve it together, than one that requires us to take sides and destroy each other. (The muscles humanity builds in solving this should make us better at handling climate change, too. They can't hardly not.)
He also invokes a new set of heroes -- health care workers and first responders -- that is by definition middle class. We will not be genuflecting to Wall Street sharks and CEOs again -- that era is over (and it has huge implications for our consumer economy, which is probably a whole other post). The era in which we glorified soldiers is probably passing, too. "Thank you for your service" will now be said to a lot of other people who've always deserved to hear it -- doctors, nurses, cops and firefighters, teachers, and the folks who are keeping our groceries coming. We now understand, in a way that we did not before, the degree to which we depend on the sacrifices and constancy of the everyday heroes who live on our own streets.
The idea that it's OK for government or employers to make their lives harder isn't going to be accepted to nearly the same degree it has been. A world of policies that center the success of the middle and working classes -- wages, working conditions, unions -- may well be born from this new understanding.
And with this, the basic idea that decent people should be willing to make sacrifices for the greater good -- an idea assassinated by the Boomers, and dormant ever since -- is making a swift and long overdue return, too. Two steps behind it, we'll see the idea of science, public service, and government expertise as honorable and respectable making a big comeback (Gen Z will enter these fields in a bigger way than anybody has since the 60s) along with a greater willingness on the part of taxpayers to fund the work of those people, and grant them higher status. Professional competence and sober, adult-level decision-making abilities are about to become more prized than they've been in decades.
There are a lot of changes coming. Biden isn't going to showcase the whole shift in one 60-second ad. I doubt he even understands where all of this is going. But I don't think he needs to, because the shift is a lot bigger than one president. All he needs to be is a willing conduit for the change that's coming. The public is learning a lot of sobering, important things right now about why government matters, and those things are going to resonate through our politics for the next 20 years.
Joe's an old Dem, old enough to remember the last time Dems spoke the language of patriotism and public service and sacrifice for the common good. Right now, simply being able to tell that healing story well enough is a revolutionary enough act for this moment. Once people start hearing it, the details of how we achieve that vision will start to become self-evident, other politicians and leaders will start picking it up, and the real revolution will be underway.
(Like this post? Follow me on Facebook at Sara Robinson, Futurist.)
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