Unite or Die: Building a New Democratic Alignment
As veterans, we learned to work together under high-stakes conditions. As progressives, we believe we can’t defeat Trump and win real change until we join together around shared values to build a powerful Democratic coalition. This kind of alignment does not require us to set aside meaningful disagreements; in fact, true unity demands that we have robust contests over the future of the party, even while we organize together to build an unstoppable progressive front.
In 2016, we founded Common Defense, a progressive organization led by military veterans. Though we came from diverse political backgrounds, all of us agreed that Donald Trump posed an existential threat to the country we had sworn to defend. Despite the common sense view that Trump could never win a general election, we saw a dangerous power in his blending of toxic nativism with anti-establishment rage. Even more concerning was the weakness we saw on our own side. The Democratic coalition seemed too occupied with in-fighting to seize the political moment, and too fragmented to create the broad, united front we needed to defeat Trump and the far-right forces he emboldened.
Now, one year after Donald Trump was sworn into office, our people face the terror of deportations, the threat of nuclear war, and countless assaults against our communities, our values, and our very democracy. And because Trump has so nakedly revealed the hate and greed at the heart of the “conservative” agenda, we’ve never had a better opportunity to powerfully articulate and mobilize around a shared progressive vision. The stakes couldn’t be higher, which is why we’re so dismayed to see a familiar pattern taking hold on the left. Once again, Democrats have locked themselves into an endless reenactment of the 2016 civil war. Meanwhile, a growing popular narrative tells us that Trump’s administrative incompetence, low approval ratings, and the investigation by Robert Mueller somehow spells imminent doom for the regime.
By letting ourselves fall into complacency and in-fighting, we are laying the groundwork for eight years of Trump. We must focus instead on building a united front, and putting an end to the circular firing squads that push people out of the political system at the time we need them most.
To be clear, forging a super coalition does not mean hand-waving away our important differences. We can’t ignore the difficult, but critically important conversations we need to have about the future of the Democratic Party. But we can and must enter these dialogues with goodwill, and with the understanding that contesting the direction of our institutions doesn’t mean tearing each other down. We can engage with different visions while still telling a story that encompasses a broader collective identity, which must be bigger than any faction, bigger even than the traditional Democratic Party. When we first formed Common Defense, we made sure our leadership included Veterans for Hillary and Vets for Bernie, as well as veterans who didn’t identify with either candidate. Instead of focusing on differences, we organized around shared core values like equity, justice, and democracy. Binary narratives do not serve us, and do not reflect the reality that so many people do not fall neatly into only a single camp. To quote civil rights leader Linda Sarsour, “unity is not uniformity.”
This year’s mid-term primaries represent an urgent opportunity for us to practice this strategic alignment. Our primaries must be robust contests over bold and clearly articulated ideas. They should not serve as excuses to demonize incumbents, score points against another faction in the party, or to promote generic, uninspiring candidates who lack strategy and vision. Primaries do not hurt us, they strengthen us. They allow us to sell our ideas to the electorate, and make us more responsive to what resonates with voters. Primaries bring new people into the political system who have previously felt unheard. And once the primaries are over, we need to get behind the winner and ensure we are fighting together in every state and district, against every single one of Trump’s craven enablers.
The math for this is simple: no faction or side has the numbers and power to seize this historic moment alone. Finding common ground will be messy. Strategic unity will be hard to achieve. But Trump’s incompetence won’t hand us power, and neither will Robert Mueller. As Senator Gillibrand powerfully said during the first Women’s March Convention, “Do not wait for some white knight in Washington or the party to ride up and save us all. You will wait forever.” If we’re serious about protecting our communities, defending our country from a dangerous tyrant, and fighting for our most sacred values, we need to come together to form an unstoppable united front that can defeat Trumpism and win real change.
Signed,
Pam Campos, Veteran- US Air Force
Alexander McCoy, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Perry O’Brien, Veteran- US Army
Ksenia Voropaeva, Veteran- US Air Force
Heath Phillips, Veteran- US Navy
Joseph McEachin, Veteran- US Army
Arti Walker-Peddakotla, Veteran- US Army
Dennis White, Veteran- US Army
Amanda Le’Anne Brunzell, Veteran- US Navy
Drew Pham, Veteran- US Army
Graciela Tiscareño-Sato, Veteran- US Air Force
TC Cassidy, Veteran- US Air Force
Benjamin Schrader, Veteran- US Army
Colleen Boland, Veteran- US Army and US Air Force
Dale Gutierrez, Veteran- US Air Force
Coretta Gray, Veteran- US Air Force
Diana Danis, Veteran- US Army
Waylon Munson, Veteran- US Air Force
Colleen Bushnell, Veteran- US Air Force
Shawn Fischer, Veteran- US Army
Trina McDonald, Veteran- US Navy
Sara Samora, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Alexander Heaton, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Margaret Seymour, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Jessica Allier-Lopez, Veteran- US Army National Guard
Brianna Maldonado, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Raymond Facundo, Veteran- US Army
Julio Torres (Jr.), Veteran- US Army
Kathleen Logan, Veteran- US Army
Alan Pitts, Veteran- US Army
Ramon Mejia, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Andrea Goldstein, Veteran- US Navy
Xiomara Sosa, Veteran- US Air Force and US Army
Brianna Maldonado, Veteran- United States Marine Corps
Yvette Schutt, Veteran- US Air Force
Michelle Dallocchio, Veteran- US Army
Lynn Hall, Veteran- US Air Force
Lindsay Church, Veteran- US Navy
Mervin Santa Maria, Veteran- US Air Force
Jessica Lu, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Zachary Henson, Veteran- US Army
Nicholas Beekhuizen, Veteran- US Air Force
Kerri Peek, Veteran- US Army
Kevin Quiroz, Veteran- US Army
Jose Vasquez, Veteran- US Army
Lishamarie Hunter, Veteran- US Army
Maria Carolina Gonzalez-Prats, Veteran- US Army
Nicole Vanderheiden, Veteran- US Air Force
Hester Joy Craig, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Jennifer Pacanowski, Veteran- US Army
Barbara Marshall, Veteran- US Navy
Alexander Marte, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Francisco Munoz, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Jessica Apgar, Veteran- US Army
Katherine Scheirman, Veteran- US Air Force
Joshua Rapp, Veteran- US Air Force
Mohammad Kohistany, Veteran- US Navy
Tonya James, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Robert Molina, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Ashely Scott, Veteran- US Army
Tyler Gately, Veteran- US Army
Katherine Pratt, Veteran- Air Force
Janice Hill, Veteran- US Air Force
Andrea Marr, Veteran- US Navy
Kristofer Rivera, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Nate Terani, Veteran- US Navy
Katrese Massey, Veteran- US Air Force
David Anderson, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Josh Manning, Veteran- US Army
Anthony Robinson, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Richard Lo, Veteran- US Navy
Marie Robinson, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Lornett Vestal, Veteran- US Navy
Kyleanne Hunter, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Tahlia Burton, Veteran- US Air Force
Charlotte Clymer, Veteran- US Army
Ashley Turnage, Veteran- US Air Force
Reese Cooper May, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Quinn Nichols, Veteran- US Marine Corps
Claude Copeland, Veteran- US Army
Hector Barajas, Veteran- US Army
