The "Incandescent Ideals" We're Fighting For

by Mike Davenport, Ex-Mayor, Prosperity, Pennsylvania

As I’ve been pondering the results of the most recent election, I thought of a video that Makayla Nichols, our Prosperity Minister of Ballyhoo…also my fiancé…forwarded to me a while back.

The speaker is Anand Giridharadas, an author and thought leader working to ensure that democracy survives. Here’s the video (fast forward to minute 40)

Here’s an edited transcript, with my comments:

We love the hell out of this country. People will respond like patriotism is nationalism, and it's an ugly sentiment. I definitely do not think that's how we win—running against love of country.

I would love to hear a lot of people tell about a country that was founded with incredible incandescent ideals that were so profoundly radical and good, that virtually nobody involved in their drafting could live up to them. Nobody there had the courage to be true to what they said but what they said was good and was a real break from what had come before in human history.

“Incredible incandescent ideals that were so profoundly radical and good, that virtually nobody involved in their drafting could live up to them.” At the most critical moment of our adventure into real democracy in Prosperity, we went back to the words of our founding document, the Declaration of Independence. Here are those words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.—That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Let’s return to Anand Giridharadas:

Can you think of a better mission for “the Bigger We” of Americans to live up to Mr. Jefferson’s aspirational words? Patriotism is not nationalism. It is loving the hell out of this country, and doing the hard work of making it a place where everyone can live and thrive.

Every generation has fought to narrow the gap between what was said and what was true. They have succeeded, remarkably in every generation building a bigger way.

They beat back the small hearted faction who wanted to keep slavery: they lost

…who wanted to keep workers in slums. They lost

…who didn't want a safety net. They lost

…who didn't want women to vote. They lost

…who didn't want old age Insurance, they lost

…who didn't want school integration. They lost

…who didn't want environmental laws, gay rights, they lost.

In the long run, in the ongoing contest between do we build “a bigger we” or do we build a smaller we, the bigger we has crushed it again and again and again.

And I think we need to remember that we are endeavoring to do a really cool thing in this country, which is to build a country “made of the world,” a country made of all the other countries. We're trying to build a country where every kind of person from every last village on this planet can come here and realize more of their potential than they would have wherever they came from.

We don't live up to it a lot, but it is an awesome pursuit. I think we're falling on our face in this moment of backlash because we are jumping high and trying a big bold thing. I think we should start acting like what we are, which is a movement for progress that has won a lot of progress and start acting like winners and taking to the American people the case that we can push through these changes, and everybody's lives will be better. And talk through the people who are scared and build with them and with the people who are already with us a much bigger coalition for extraordinary change.

On July 4, 1776, the people of what was to become the United States of America made a radical shift from powerless victims of monarchical tyranny to owners of their own destinies. This is the shift the citizens of Pulver Forge made when we decided to become “Prosperity, Pennsylvania.” We recognized that we have unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are not privileges bestowed by kings, nobles, bureaucrats or corporate CEOs, but fundamental human rights granted by nature itself.

We also recognized that governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed. When the government becomes destructive of these rights — like when the Governor of Pennsylvania tried to shut us down, because it was inconvenient to his presidential campaign — it was our duty to resist his efforts and assert our rights. If We the People decide we want something — like food for all, healthcare for all, a proper shelter for all, and a community that encourages cooperation and friendship — we can have those things (if we organize and work for them).

Everything we want and need is right here in front of us, folks. The Founding Fathers risked their lives to create this brand-new kind of government. Every generation gets to do its best to live up to these goals. I think my little town made some progress, and maybe it will inspire others to do so as well.

AUTHOR NOTE: Mike Davenport is a character in the book “Prosperity, Pennsylvania.” You can get your free review copy of “Prosperity, Pennsylvania” from BookSirens here:

You can buy a copy here and here.

The book is about how an everyday collection of optimists transformed a downtrodden Rust Belt town. The town isn’t saved by a miraculous intervention of government or big business. The people save themselves by imagining a society that works together to work for them, and then gets to work to make this vision a reality.

I intend this book to be a ‘how-to’ manual for how we can all get beyond the stale ‘hate-your-neighbor’ red-blue, right-left narratives. What do we all want? The love of family and friends, enough to eat, a home, health care, and a loving community where we belong. We can create these things for ourselves.

I didn’t make anything up. Everything that happens in the book happened somewhere in the world. I just put it together in a new way.