America's Future Majority Fund, dedicated to building a new generation of progressive leaders, endorses this statement as the best expression of its commitment to America. This statement was adopted in March 2017.

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Preamble

 

We believe that Progress demands the positive liberty to enjoy freedom in all of its aspects.

 

We believe that Progressives must fight for equal opportunity for all and special privilege for none, confident that community action—expressed through democratic government—can and should secure equality of opportunity in a changing world.

 

We believe that Progress inheres in a just society, where the potential of each citizen is not limited by circumstance of birth, or race, or class, or any other factor of identity.

 

We believe that Progress requires an economic engine that empowers each individual, and a commitment to basic economic security for all.

 

We believe that Progress is founded on a secure community, one that is protected from external threats and committed to its own long-term sustainability.

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Progress Demands Equal Opportunity.

 

Our values show that individual liberty, properly secured, demands community action.

 

We acknowledge that the American experience is always evolving and never easy.  From our Founding Fathers to Civil Rights Movement to Women’s Suffrage to Marriage Equality we Progressives know that the work is never completed. Each generation must take up the business of building a more perfect union—one that ensures the security of the people, against both external threats and the tyranny of circumstance.

 

We welcome the responsibility to broaden the protection of this contract, by fostering individual commitment to civic duty and societal commitment to protecting and enhancing individual opportunity.

 

Today, we accept our full measure of duty in strengthening the social fabric of America

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Progress Inheres in a Just Society.

 

Our values dictate that to truly establish Justice, we commit ourselves to equality before the law and before circumstance.

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We believe that justice is a social effort, not just a legal one. Yes, we must secure legal redress for wrongs, and, yes, we must build a legal system that is truly blind to the biases of circumstance. But truly securing Justice demands more.

 

A progressive society does not wait for Justice; it actively seeks to redress injustice.

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Therefore we fight for a community committed to finding, and fixing,  injustice in all its forms. Progressives seek a society that expands the opportunity to vote and to be heard; a society that allows individuals to access the health care they need to prosper; and a society that protects all people’s right to privacy, to inherent dignity, and freedom from fear.

 

Progress Means an Economy that Empowers Every Individual.

 

We believe that all men and all women are created equal. And that each has equal claim to an equal share of economic opportunity. We commit ourselves to an economy that fosters each individual and maximizes their potential.

 

We recognize a fear of failure can drive us to innovate, and is a productive force in an progressive, entrepreneurial society. When society allows the consequences of failure to overwhelm its rewards, progress halts and economic growth dwindles. Worse, growing inequalities of wealth mirror growing inequalities of opportunity.

 

When all individuals know that economic risk will not lead to economic ruin, then individuals will be free to create new commerce, new opportunity, and new prosperity.

 

We seek to places no limits upon individual success, but reject the notion that devastation is the proper cost of economic misfortune.

 

We commit ourselves to a society that invests in its citizens’ economic capacity, that lessens the deleterious consequences of wealth inequity, and allows empowers its people to take risks without gambling their livelihoods and families.

 

Through a society of progressive entrepreneurship, we will re-invigorate the engine of American opportunity.

 

Progress Requires Sustainable Security

 

Physical security is essential to a progressive society. Nothing destroys the bonds of community that weave our nation together more than fear of insecurity.

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We therefore embrace America’s role as a world leader committed to building a lasting peace among nations—committed the institutions of collective security, the tools of effective diplomacy, cultural connection, and, where necessary to our national interest, armed force.

 

America can only take up its role as a world leader by first being a nation whose example should be followed. Progressive security therefore requires domestic investment in communities, infrastructure, and environmental sustainability.

 

Ensuring the continued, sustainable investment in infrastructure, in communities, and in our global environment is essential to achieving national security.

 

By re-establishing America’s role as the rightful economic, military, and moral world leader, we will secure prosperity through collective security.

 

Progressives must Stand Up for Community Action

 

Progress requires commitment. Without champions in all sectors the advance of Progress slows and rolls backward.

 

Some would see our national experiment in self-improvement frozen in time, wishing the great cause of Liberty’s advance stop at most recent shore.

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But not us. That is not the cause of American Democracy. We reject a society that cannot expand Liberty, Opportunity, and Justice. These efforts are noble, and we enlist all the tools of society—commerce, philanthropy, and government—in their pursuit.

 

The work ahead is difficult. But the moment is more critical now than ever before. Through the work of generations, we have built a society more free, more possible, and more prosperous than any other in history. Yet, the work remains ahead.

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We now re-commit to the work of securing progress each day.

 

Our Commitment

 

Progressivism, the belief that through democratic governance we can secure equal opportunity for all, is the strongest conception of Liberty.

 

In the competition of ideas, we commit to its triumph. To its cause, we stake our generational claim. And in our duty, we are confident that we will forge a more perfect Union to secure the blessings of Liberty for all.

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We continue today building a new generation of leaders pledged to action in the cause of our futures.