Reply #48: empathy and/or responsibility

[welshTerrier2]

again, i think we're very much on the same page here ...

still, i'll put the question you asked me right back to you ...

let's say Democrats strongly emphasize their belief in the values of empathy and responsibility ... perhaps some would reasonably assume this means Democrats believe we should invade Iran because we have to free the Iranian people from the tyranny of theocracy and the abusive mullahs (i.e. we share empathy with the Iranian people) ... perhaps others would reasonably assume, because we are empathic, that we are sensitive to building a global community and think war should only be used as a last resort ...

the good news with being more abstract is that we really become a "big tent" where a broad spectrum of policy possibilities is not filtered out ... the bad news is, however, that our identity, at least our identity in terms of how we would act in a given situation, is less clear ... I think it's critical for voters to know us at our core and for voters to be able to understand how we would handle any future situation by understanding our core beliefs ...

i guess ultimately what i'm arguing for is a platform that contains exactly what you stated: "that we should not avoid the details, but simply that we need to ALWAYS, ALWAYS connect the details to our values" ...

so my question is: do you believe that ONLY VALUES should be enumerated in the Party's platform or should policies that link directly to those values also be included?