Posts and comments on Daily Kos have a tendency to be shrill (mine included). So it was pretty refreshing to see this diary about "What's Right with Kansas":

Which brings me back to Kansas. While I was there, it rained-- a blessing to the parched farmland. My husband went out to run an errand with another Kansas buddy, and to do the errand, they had to drive on dirt roads. This is no surprise-- there are still a lot of dirt roads out there that lots of people have to drive every day. And, even with their four wheel drive, they got stuck in the mud. This happens frequently, and many people in Kansas simply have to stay home on rainy days. But if you do get stuck, as my husband did, what do you do?

Why, you call a friend, a nearby farmer. And he interrupts his day, brings out his tractor and gets you out. And if he gets stuck too, you call another neighbor with a bigger tractor and he interrupts his day to help get both stuck vehicles out of the mud. And so it goes until everyone is out of the mud or everyone is equally stuck, laughing and shaking their heads and walking home until the rain clears and land dries.

My husband and his buddy got pulled out and came home to do their errand another day. But it got me to thinking. People in Kansas don't always see government as the solution to the problems because, out there, government CAN'T be. We can't, as a nation, afford to have an army of tractors at the ready to pull people off of muddy roads. And people don't expect us to. (And I am putting aside the question of farm subsidies, which is a different topic and which more family farmers oppose than you might think.) These are people who know that shit happens, and you have to live with it.

What people in Kansas care about is that they know that when they are stuck in the mud, their neighbors will drop what they're doing and come help them. But it's not because they get their vehicle unstuck. See, if they called a neighbor for help and the neighbor said, "I have a problem with the barn," Kansans would leave their vehicles in the mud start walking to help their neighbor with the problem in the barn. It's not, at the end of the day, whose vehicle is where and what's going on in the barn. It's that they live in a place where doing the right thing IN AND OF ITSELF is the highest value. THAT's the key.

What's powerful about this message (especially on Daily Kos) is that, for the most part, it's not political. It has nothing to do with government policies but focuses instead on what it means for people to do the right thing.

And that's where the religious right has a head start on us. In addition to pushing for legislative or judicial action, it uses religious institutions to discuss what doing the right thing means. It addresses questions of identity, responsibility, and morality. Not only do they talk about abortion policy, they talk about abortion itself.

We often talk about building a progressive movement, not a progressive party (and a good thing to, because if we did, Campus Progress would surely violate its tax status). A movement is not, and should not be, limited to politics. It, or rather, we, need to talk about the individual, family, and community. What does being a progressive mean outside of writing, protesting, or legislating? What does being an American mean outside of holding an American passport and voting in American elections? And what does simply being a good human being mean?

The answers aren't always so clear, but it's a discussion we need to be having. It's only when progressive leaders can stop talking about how Tax Plan X saves you money and starts talking about the responsibility the fortunate have towards the poor that people outside of the movement will trust that we will "do the right thing." And that's probably a discussion better left to philosophers, preachers, and people rather than politicians.

At any rate, be sure to read the diary linked above.