THE DEMOCRATIC CREED
Political messaging is temporary, shifting endlessly as the election dictates.
Identity is permanent — true today, true decades from now. And identity is what gives politics meaning and makes real change possible.
Our permanent identity requires a moral foundation: a written set of values strong enough to survive changing events, changing leaders, and changing times.
That is why the Democratic Creed exists.
Created by Democrats from every corner of our party, it identifies the deepest values that unite us — beliefs every Democrat, and every American, can recognize as true.
Not a slogan, platform, or campaign message, it is a statement of enduring truth about who we are and the country we seek to build.
The Democratic Creed is our commitment to those truths.
The Democratic Creed gives us something simple, clear, and permanent.
But it is not enough on its own.
Political reality demands that we explain what we mean — clearly, consistently, and in a way anyone can understand.
The moment we define Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity too narrowly, they stop uniting us. They divide.
The definitions that follow are not policy or positions.
They are statements of truth — rooted in the Democratic Creed — clear enough to guide us, broad enough to remain shared, a common language for Democrats to speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
We further believe that American democracy depends on:
• A free and independent press, dedicated to truth and objectivity.
• An educated citizenry with free and easy access to information.
• A nation that accepts and embraces diversity.
• Full financial transparency in election campaigns, in political office, and in government transactions.
• An American economy based on Free Enterprise, and protected by the government from the baser instincts of large corporations and the financially powerful.
• The continued existence of a strong military, free of political involvement and financial corruption, and dedicated to protecting us against all enemies foreign and domestic.
• Educators and law enforcement officers being treated as among the most important parts of society, highly paid and stringently selected, and meeting exacting national standards of professionalism, ethics and psychological motivation.
• American citizens who care. Without this, nothing is possible.
This is what we believe.
ADOPT the DEMOCRATIC creed!
Our organization supports this Creed and the Democratic values it expresses. We want to join a community of like-minded people and make these values our party’s identity. By uniting together around these shared core values, we will create the just society this country deserves.
Here are samples of resolutions: short (Word or PDF) and long (Word or PDF).
Full list of organizations that have adopted the Democratic Creed (by date of adoption and by states) based on Democrats 101 by J.M. Purvis.
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE DEMOCRATIC CREED
AS AN INDIVIDUAL
I want to join the community based on the values of Freedom, Justice and Opportunity and the Democratic Creed. I support the vision of a just society ... as long as it takes