Summing It Up

On November 21, 2025, I began a series of essays on democratic virtues – with a small ‘d’, because these are the character traits that are fundamental to a functional democracy. My first list all began with the letter ‘c’, because the first term I came up with was Character. One of my readers commented “Too bad they don’t all start with ‘D’. I agreed and remade my list.

My point then was that the Democratic Party can find its way in the upcoming election cycles by emphasizing, not only their policy proposals, but also their commitment to habits of mind and action that will ensure that they can be trusted to do what they promise and to do it in a way that makes them look like the adults in the room. These character traits are wholly lacking in the current Republic president and, by extension, in the party he leads. You can read all of these essays by accessing the links at the end of this essay.

As I wrote these essays, I found that these character traits don’t operate in isolation from one another – they are interdependent. It’s impossible to explain any one of them without invoking the others, so I constructed a matrix that shows what happens as these virtues intersect. As the small print below the matrix indicates, you should read this by saying [the character trait in the left column] strengthens [the actions in the top row].

The yellow diagonal marching through the matrix is where the virtue intersects with itself – revealing the public-facing aspect of that virtue. For example, when a person who possesses the trait of decency does things that are widely perceived as decent, this exhibits strong moral character. When a person who possesses the trait of duty, his/her public action constantly shows a commitment to service above self interest. And so on.

It becomes a little more interesting when you start to look at the non-yellow cells in the matrix. I’m only going to do this with one row – Dependability – because it is a major virtue utterly lacking in the current GOP. They cannot be trusted to do what they promise, because they are trying to serve an inconsistent master who governs by whim and tweet. Here’s how this plays out:

• Trustworthiness: sitting at the intersection of dependability and decency, this means that people exhibiting these virtues can be trusted not only to do what they promised, but to do it because they promised the right things.

• Reliability: sitting at the intersection of dependability and duty, this means that people exhibiting these virtues can be trusted to do their jobs as described in whatever documents lay out their job responsibilities.

• Steady Presence: sitting at the intersection of dependability and dignity, this means that people exhibiting these virtues can be trusted to do their jobs while refusing to engage in petty squabbles or juvenile insults that undermine the seriousness of their responsibilities

• Reliability under stress; sitting at the intersection of dependability and determination, this means that people exhibiting these virtues can be trusted to do their jobs even when it’s difficult – when they confront political opponents, foreign adversaries, or personal challenges.

• Consistent navigation: sitting at the intersection of dependability and direction, this means that people exhibiting these virtues will perform regular status checks to identify whether they are still going where they planned to go and have not been diverted by externalities.

• Institutional reliability: sitting at the intersection of dependability and direction, this means that people exhibiting these virtues will work through the prescribed governing or private institutions tasked with performing important functions rather than find ways to get around the occasional bureaucratic restrictions.

As I said, I’ll let you walk through the rest of the matrix.

The Democratic Party is going to spend 2026 working toward a Blue Wave election in the fall, knowing that taking control of at least one part of the government is essential to stopping (or at least crippling) the GOP effort to subvert American democracy to the will of one deranged person in the White House. They are arguing about whether they should focus on issues – affordability, healthcare, the environment, etc. – or on providing accountability for the misdeeds of Trump and his lackeys inside and outside of government.

I don’t know what would be best for the party. But here’s what I do think: If the Democrats focused on these virtues and the areas where they intersect, it will provide them with consistent messaging that will build a “brand” (if you will) that stands in stark contrast to whatever this [waves hands in the air] is.

• You want to make sure Americans have access to affordable healthcare? That lies at the intersection of Dignity and Direction.

• You want to keep inflation under control? That lies at the intersection of Duty and Dependability.

• And so forth.

Most important issues will rely on elements of several (if not all) of these virtues, but I don’t know how to create a multi-dimensional matrix on a piece of paper. But you get my drift. No matter how candidates decide to focus their campaigns — broadly, either on policy or accountability — using these virtues as an organizing them will provide a sense that the Democrats know what they’re doing.

Here are the links to the articles I devoted to developing what these virtues would look like on the ground and how the current GOP has subverted them

November 21 Seven Democratic Virtues https://kamcpherson.substack.com/p/seven-democratic-virtues?r=9ajr

November 24 Decency https://kamcpherson.substack.com/p/decency?r=9ajr

November 28 Duty https://kamcpherson.substack.com/p/duty?r=9ajr

December 1 Dignity https://kamcpherson.substack.com/p/dignity?r=9ajr

December 4 Determination https://kamcpherson.substack.com/p/determination?r=9ajr

December 8 Direction https://kamcpherson.substack.com/p/direction?r=9ajr

December 12 Dependability https://kamcpherson.substack.com/p/dependability?r=9ajr

December 19 Democracy https://kamcpherson.substack.com/p/democracy?r=9ajr