Listening To Michigan: Faith Lessons From A Swing State

By Mark Brewer, Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party

The meetings were an eye-opening
experience. I was struck both by how much common ground existed
with "conservative" pastors and also with how similar the suggestions
from "conservative" and "liberal" were when it came to the Democratic
Party. These leaders didn't want Democrats to suddenly
"find God" as much as they wanted to be reassured that there was
a place in our Party for those who already had.

By Mark Brewer, Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, President of
the Association of State Democratic Chairs, and Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee

The results of the 2004 elections
taught me two important lessons. First, Democrats nationwide
and in my state needed to do more to reach out to and engage people
of faith, especially evangelicals and moderate/conservative Catholics.
Second, there was incredible potential for Democrats if we decided to
do so.

During the final six weeks
of the 2004 campaign, Michigan Democrats launched a grassroots Catholic
outreach effort that built bridges and delivered a faith-friendly message
through targeted mailings, phone banks, and earned media.
Michigan was the only swing state where John Kerry received a majority
of Catholic votes, and he received 15% more votes from regular church-attending
Catholics in Michigan than he did in the other battleground states of
Ohio and Florida.

We were determined to build
on that success and to ensure that people of faith understood that they
were welcome within the Democratic Party. And so back in the summer
of 2005, I began attending a series of "listening meetings" with
leaders from faith communities throughout the state. The meetings
were kept small, normally between 5-20 pastors and lay leaders.
And I made it very clear that the purpose of the meeting was for me
to listen, not lobby. When we finally wrapped up the meetings
this past summer, I had met with and listened to close to 500 pastors
and lay leaders in my state.

I met with a number of pastors
from liberal/mainline traditions that tend to support Democratic policies,
but most of my meetings were with pastors and leaders from more conservative
traditions. Often, I found myself in a meeting comprised primarily
of registered Republicans. I will admit that I entered some of
the early meetings with great trepidation. I was acutely aware
of the political leanings of the pastors with whom I was about to find
myself cloistered in a room for an hour. And as someone who had
not come from an evangelical tradition and was not completely comfortable
talking openly about my own faith, I was a little nervous about whether
I would be put on the spot and how much of the conversation I'd be
required to carry.

To my surprise, rather than
being confrontational, most of the meetings began with the pastors saying:
"welcome, where have you been?" Many talked about how Republicans
reached out to them and their congregations all the time but that this
was the first time in their career that they had ever had a Democrat
express interest in what they had to say. Even in meetings with
conservative pastors in heavily Republican parts of the state, it was
clear that they appreciated my willingness to engage and listen to them.
I also quickly learned that my concerns about having to carry the conversation
myself were unfounded. When one gathers a bunch of pastors into
a room, one seldom has to worry about a lack of conversation or willingness
of folks to offer opinions!

By beginning each conversation
with the question of what they felt the proper place for faith in the
public square was, we were able to build some trust and find common
ground before diving into some of the hot button issues. To my
surprise, many of my meetings with conservative pastors would end without
them once raising the issues of abortion or gay marriage. It was
clear that other things were more important or equally important to
them and that many preferred to focus on what we had in common.
In fact, the issue that came up the most was not abortion or gay marriage
but the concern that people of faith did not feel like they knew what
the Democrats stood for.

But perhaps the most tangible
thing to come from the meetings was the result of a question by several
of the pastors about how committed we truly were to listening and giving
them a voice within the Party. I told them that I would love it
if they would participate in the drafting process for the 2006 platform,
and they accepted. The result was a beautiful preamble that captures
the vision of what the Democratic Party stands for and for whom
it stands. And they also contributed a section on the role of
faith in our Party, which included a positive affirmation of the role
of faith in our society.

All of these accomplishments,
all of these new relationships, and all of the potential inherent therein
are the result of a very old and important technique of politics and
governing: listen to the people. In Michigan, we will continue
to hold listening meetings after this election, and I would encourage
every state Party and elected official to do the same. I leave
you with the words from the Preamble to our Party Platform coined by
some of my new evangelical friends:

There was
a time when Americans were challenged to ask not what their country
could do for them, but what they could do for their country. In recent
years, however, we seem to have become less
interested in looking first to the needs of others
— especially the needs of the most vulnerable
— and more interested in meeting only the needs of ourselves. America
has always been at its best when Americans ask not
"what's in it for me," but "what can I do to give back?"

The Michigan
Democratic Party understands this basic principle. That is why Democrats
in this state are seeking the Common Good
– the best life for each person of this state. The orphan. The family.
The sick. The healthy. The wealthy. The poor. The citizen. The stranger.
The first. The last.

Seeking
the Common Good is not difficult for Michigan's citizens to understand.
Just ask the woman who watches her neighbor's son so mom can work
to pay her heating bill. Ask the pastor, rabbi or imam who walks the
street at night praying for the crime in his neighborhood to cease.
Ask the dentist whose staff keeps telling her she's got to start charging
families who don't have insurance. The people of Michigan deserve
leadership with the moral courage that matches that of the people of
Michigan.

By holding
ourselves to this vision of the Common Good, Democrats have the integrity
to deal with the challenges that face Michigan today. We address Michigan's
economic situation while holding the
"least of these" – our most impoverished, our least advantaged
— at the forefront of our minds. We address security concerns while
holding the "stranger" — immigrants and our brothers and sisters
who live abroad — in the highest respect. We address our health care
needs remembering the ill, the elderly, and the unemployed. In short,
we do what is difficult, and we do what is right.

Michigan
is showered with blessings — from the beach grass covering our sand
dunes to the oil covering the hands of our assembly line workers. The
people of Michigan who make it such a treasure deserve leadership who
treasure them in return. In the Michigan Democratic Party and its candidates,
Michigan's citizens will find just such leadership
— leadership devoted to the Common Good.

Listening to Michigan: Faith Lessons from a Swing State