The new Four Freedoms

I hope you’re able to avoid politics on Thursday, but if you’re not – consider speaking to freedom.

Thanksgiving is about gratitude and family. It’s also about freedom. The Pilgrims trekked to these shores for it. And Abraham Lincoln was rallying the nation to it when he declared the holiday in the middle of the Civil War.

I hope you’re able to avoid politics on Thursday, but if you’re not – consider speaking to freedom. Freedom from fear. Free enterprise. Free elections. And free minds. We must build faith in these new Four Freedoms, reimagined for this moment from Franklin Roosevelt’s original Four Freedoms.

“The Four Freedoms” by Norman Rockwell

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Freedom from fear

From Roosevelt’s Social Security to civil rights, Democrats have a proud tradition of using government to reduce fear for Americans. Now MAGA is using the government to make us more afraid, particularly our immigrant neighbors.

After Biden’s failure at the border, immigration is a tough issue for Democrats. But we cannot waver from our values. Anyone standing on American soil, regardless of how they got here, deserves equal justice under law.

I always feel most proud to be a Democrat when we fight for the rule of law and the little guy, because no one should be afraid of their own government. Freedom from fear also means that no one should be afraid of criminals at home or autocrats abroad, either. Democrats must be strong in supporting our police and our military. Their livelihoods protect our lives.

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Free enterprise

It’s been well-said that life is best organized as a series of daring ventures from a secure base. Freedom from fear secures the base. Free enterprise lets Americans pursue those daring ventures that built this country.

Free enterprise promises a future that is built, not bought. This decade must deliver seven million homes, gigawatts more energy, and more ships than the Chinese Navy. Democrats can’t get there with the old economic playbook of making rules and sending checks.

Cut regulations that clog things up, like zoning. Encourage technology that unlocks mass production, like next-generation geothermal. Snap the chokepoints of corporate capture that inflate prices, like the vertical integration and self-dealing of the for-profit health insurance companies.

Above all, unlock the genius of our people. Surge 1:1, high-dosage tutoring to every student in America. Build 1,000 trade schools. Double research and development funding. Americans are unstoppable when we are free to learn, invent and build together in an economy that works like Legos, not Monopoly.

And we are unbeatable when we invent and build with our allies. Free trade with free people makes us richer and stronger. Targeted tariffs on China and sanctions on Russia are sound strategy. Turning our backs on Canada, Nigeria, or Ukraine is not.

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Free elections

The Ukrainians’ fight to be a free people started with a free election. Free people everywhere depend upon free and fair elections. Yet America is no longer the standard. Few general elections are competitive. When they are, the Citizens United decision makes them more like auctions than contests. Democrats defended free and fair elections on January 6, 2021. We should make their integrity part of our platform.

Booting big money out of campaigns, as Maine is trying to do, will give voters back their voice. Curbing gerrymandering, as in New Jersey, and opening up partisan primaries to all comers, as in Alaska, will force politicians to address all voters, not just the partisans.

Paired together, reforms to campaign finance and elections will enfranchise the exhausted majority – the two-thirds of voters who are stranded between the 40-yard-lines of American politics.

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Free minds

This exhausted majority is being trained to disbelieve its own existence. In an era when trillion-dollar social media corporations tear us apart, Roosevelt’s freedoms of speech and worship, while vital, are no longer enough. It’s not just freedom of expression but also freedom of impression. Democrats must battle big tech to take back free minds.

I have three children: 5, 4, and 2 years old. As a parent, I feel powerless against the economy of endless scrolling. I know other parents do, too. What I can’t accept, though, is why Congress feels powerless. As a Member of the committee with jurisdiction over social media, I am hitting back hard.

Get smartphones out of schools. Raise the age of Internet adulthood. Force TikTok’s divestment from the Chinese Communist Party. Narrow Section 230, which shields social media from the laws that journalists follow. Levy big tech’s advertising revenue as a tax on attention-fracking. And much more.

We must safeguard for American children the freedom of their own minds against the rapacity of social media corporations. Empowered IRL, the next generation can reinvigorate faith, family, and community.

I hope you can enjoy time with your faith, family and/or community tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving!