If I was a leader in the Democratic Party, I’d have one message to the people:
You belong here.
Call it corny or idealistic. Call it untenable in our polarized era. Call it whatever you want. That’s the message, said with no irony, to anyone and everyone who hears it.
You. Belong. Here.
Message
To American immigrants who came from elsewhere and made a home in this country,
you belong here.1
To American federal workers who’ve lost or may lose your jobs without reason,
you belong here.
To American veterans,
you belong here.2
To black and brown Americans in the federal workforce mislabeled as diversity hires,
you belong here.
To white Americans who voted MAGA thinking you’re losing your country,
you belong here.3
To religious Americans of all faiths, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist,
you belong here.
To atheist and nonreligious Americans,
you belong here.
To Gen Z Americans who’ve never known a country that wasn’t highly polarized,
you belong here.
To Americans of older generations who don’t feel respected by or understand this one,
you belong here.
To Americans with disabilities and chronic illnesses,
you belong here.
To Americans with college degrees and Americans without them,
you belong here.
To trans and nonbinary Americans mislabeled as predators and degenerates,
you belong here.
To working-class Americans one medical bill away from financial disaster,
you belong here.
To Americans with money and Americans without,
you belong here.
To Americans being targeted and forcibly removed from this country by ICE,
you belong here.
To American MAGA voters who think you’re winning from these illegal removals,
you belong here.
To Americans living in cities and Americans in rural and suburban areas,
you belong here.
To Americans on the coast and Americans on the planes,
you belong here.
To all Americans I neglected to mention,
you belong here, too.
Meaning
America is all of our country.4 It belongs to all of us, and we belong to it.5
As humans, we all want and need to belong.
When we feel we don’t belong, we start to act out in unhealthy ways. For some of us, that may look like shooting up schools, storming the U.S. Capitol Building, or stewing on internet forums about how awful women are; for others of us, it may look like disordered eating, depression, or suicide.6 In any case, the cure to our national and global epidemic of social alienation and loneliness is belonging.
As Americans, we belong to a pluralist and free country.7
When we embrace that America is built on the radical idea that we all deserve to be here and to have a voice here, we can envision our path forward. Yes, of course, our execution of our ideals has been deeply flawed, yet these ideals are still worth fighting for. Getting closer to achieving them is still worth striving for.8
As someone famously once said, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it.”
Along these lines, we ought to remember that the reason behind our Constitution and our Bill of Rights is pragmatism more than it is idealism.9 It is an acknowledgement of reality paired with a realistic path forward. The periodic reaffirmation of our democractic values is how we go on as a country. It’s how we have managed to go on and to improve for the past two and a half centuries.
The sentiment of belonging is a vital part of these values.
Moreover
We cultivate belonging every time we choose to respond to one another with kindness and empathy rather than with rejection and shame.10
We foster openness and connection whenever we speak and question with curiosity and a desire to understand rather than with accusations and self-righteousness.
We make our country a better, more welcoming place when we affirm and re-affirm our and one another’s belonging in it.11
Obligatory Disclaimer: all views expressed here are my own personal views and do not represent the views of my employer nor those of the U.S. government.
Thank you for reading! Your support gives me a greater feeling of belonging. I hope my writing gives you that feeling, too!
I’d love to hear from you— how do you think we can cultivate belongingness in our communities, our country, and our world?
Side Notes, End Notes, & Tangents
We the majority want you here.
and thank you for your service!
The country is changing, and it’s still your country too.
Some of us may struggle to share it, but that doesn’t change the fact that our democratic values call on us all to share it. Right now, it’s all of our mess, but I’m confident we can clean it up together. I’m confident we can rebuild, especially once we stop destroying.
We all have an American spirit within us, which we bring to life and which brings us to life when we vote, protest, and stand up for our shared rights and liberties. Even in our current trying times, I have faith we can re-awaken our country’s spirit and that that spirit will live on long past us, to reference something Jon Lovett said on a podcast that I’ll link here if I can find it: [Edit: I couldn’t find it but will add to post if I do and/or I had a few other thoughts on that episode of (I think it may have been) Pod Save America, so I may write a response post instead].
In case it needs said, I’m neither excusing nor equating these behaviors.
We accept that we are each one string woven into our interconnected, multicultural society.
Yes, we face problems, and yes, we can and will solve them. We can and will persevere.
It’s not some lofty liberal fantasy. It’s a necessary, barebones component of a free society.
Fixing our broken sense of belonging will require courage, patience, and humility. It’s not complicated, but it is hard. Nevertheless, we can do it; many of us already are doing it.
I have much more to say on this topic, including more specific How-To ideas and tips, which I plan to publish in the future. That said, I feel my newsletters have been tending to get longer over time, which was perhaps inevitable, so I’m trying to keep it shorter/not try to put too many things in one post.
So agree!!
For me, as a European, it's hard to comprehend everything that is happening in the US, and yet that's what I can I find extremely disturbing.
But yet, you are right, everyone should feel welcome and sense of belonging.