The secret to getting a Democrat in the Oval Office may run deeper than the candidates themselves.
In his speech last night, President and founder of the Progressive Policy Institute Will Marshall suggested a revamping of the Democratic Party.
Marshall founded the PPI in 1989 as a center to modernize progressive politics and government for the information age.
At its birth, the PPI had "the power of our ideas and political analyses" but few financial resources, Marshall said. "We wanted to solve the problem of why Democrats cannot win the White House. We saw a fundamental problem in the message of the party."
The problem, according to Marshall, is that politics are essentially about ideals and principles. However, in today's culture it has become a discussion of "programs rather than values," he said.
In Marshall's eyes, the Democratic Party must be remodeled.
As the 2004 presidential election comes into focus, Marshall cited the need for Democrats to become fluent on national security in order to win the White House.
"The battle against terrorism is not won on the battlefields -- it is a battle of ideas," Marshall said.
He criticized Bush's lopsided view of American military power and his neglect of diplomacy, stressing the importance of a "values-based foreign policy that promotes the spread of liberal democracy."
Marshall provided lofty goals for the Democratic party in 2004.
"The Democrats must convince Americans that they are tough enough to fight al Qaeda," he said. "They must select a credible Democratic commander-in-chief."
He would not, however, give any specific Democratic candidates that the PPI was supporting in the upcoming election, though many students said they came to hear Marshall's talk for that reason.
"I came to find direction and ideas for the upcoming election," College sophomore Katie Held said. "I also came to hear about the network of thinkers headed by people like Marshall. It's nice to learn that you don't have to run for public office to get your ideas across."
Marshall provided long answers to complicated questions.
When asked what makes a New Democrat, he answered that it is a leader who provides "specific ideas that represent systemic radical change." He cited charter schools and a work-first welfare system as policies that are new ideas -- not simply midpoints on a left-right continuum of political beliefs.
When persistent audience members pointed to the lack of adequate representation of new ideas in the media, Marshall definitively answered that "the question in the end is the quality of your ideas, not the number of talking heads you have out there."
The event, held at 3619 Locust Walk, was sponsored by the Fox Leadership Program.
"It's important for people like Will Marshall to speak," Student Director of the Fox Leadership Program Ben Cruse said. "Marshall is an innovator of the ideas we hear about in The Daily Pennsylvanian about welfare, race and community service."
