REPUBLICANS

Many Americans feel a growing distance between the values they were raised with — responsibility, fairness, respect for the Constitution, belief in the country — and what they now see in politics.

This moment is not about changing parties. We are facing something deeper: erosion of the values that define what it means to be an American — what will serve as the foundation of this country’s future.

Long before political parties, those values were written down in the words of Thomas Jefferson: that all people are created equal.

These words were reaffirmed in moments of crisis by Abraham Lincoln, who reminded us that a nation built on that idea could endure — and must.

These are American values, and this is not about policy or party. It’s about the foundation that should underlie all politics — the principles that define what we are trying to achieve as Americans. Politics should be about how to live up to them, how to bring them to life.

The word “Democratic” in the Democratic Creed is not about party first. It is about democracy itself — the belief that a free people, equal in dignity, can govern themselves and build a just society together.

The question is not what party you belong to. The question is whether these values still ring true to you.

If they do, then you already share more with this movement than you may realize.

This is not about policies or political positions. It is about the foundation those debates should rest on.