(Originally published in Greater Democracy)

What does it mean to be a ‘Reform Democrat’? This is a question that has been talked a lot about since last November and has been getting more discussion as we go through municipal primaries and head into municipal general elections this fall.

To some, it is a very tactical issue. We need a DNC chair who will do X. We need a blogosphere that will do Y. To some, it is a message of opposition, opposition to the abuses of power by the extreme right wing Republicans.

To others, it is about returning to key parts of the Democratic message, from FDR to Clinton. I always come back to the about section of Greater Democracy. There, we talk about things like ‘democratic governance’ and ‘how new communications technologies support democracy’.

Yes, I am a techie and a hardcore democrat. To me, this idea of being a democrat, and I am using a small ‘d’ very intentionally, is in contract to being an autocrat or a theocrat. It is about a belief that we are all in this together, that everyone should have a voice that can be heard, that we are at our best when we are working together to help one another out. It stands in stark opposition to “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.