progressive pragmatics 2024 • gary e. davis • berkeley


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	progressive pragmatics 2024 gary e. davis	September 3, 2024

E.J. Dionne opens his recent discussion of Harris’s ascension:

It’s a routine mistake to see politics and policy as disconnected — to cast “politics” as some grubby, self-interested thing and “policy” as an elevated, cerebral exercise in serving the common good.

The truth is that, in a democracy, good policy without successful politics is impossible. The two always interact, and not just because governing requires winning elections. The policies themselves regularly need to be reconsidered and adjusted to build the coalitions required to enact and preserve them.

I replied, too effusively maybe:

Dionne's astute recollection of the conditions setting up Harris's current momentum reminds me of the really philosophical backdrop of Biden's 2020 candidacy. His very detailed call for fidelity to the "soul of America" was not merely the rhetoric of Jon Meacham (close Biden friend, historian, and speechwriter). If one goes back to Biden's major speeches (and add to that the contributions of the Obamas), there was an important re-Founding which echoes in Harris's DNC address (and its complements by the Obamas, Buttigieg, Walz, and Winfrey).

Today, I gave myself the pleasure of reading the transcripts of those culminating DNC speeches that I'd watched over those several days; and read the transcript of Harris's interview last Thursday. Dionne has it right.

I want to add that policy and politics gain their lasting gravity through the values that best orient Our belonging together in the same promising nation.

Some pundits have been dismissive of Harris's interview avowal that she hasn't changed her values, but who goes back to the emphases on values which cohere from the DNC days? Those are keystones for orienting progressive policy—calling for grounding democratic life in family, neighborhood, community, and an authentic love of nationality that may continue to be exemplary for other nations—leading values, not merely as motivators for getting out the vote.

That requires a pragmatism which Dionne sketches wisely—a progressive pragmatism which is patient with the slower pace of change which many folks are more comfortable with.

A motto for progressive pragmatism might well be: "I'll meet you at your place, then we'll go on from there."

That place is the other’s own context of interest, their level of understanding, and our given interest in acting together. As I noted earlier, Harris’s…

…most important statement (cited by CNN before the interview was broadcast) [was that]: She seeks “…to build consensus [because] it is important to find a common place of understanding of where we can actually solve problems.”

That goes for teaching, parenting, for all collaborative interaction where the differing backgrounds are important, thereby calling for reconciliation of incongruous values, for changing beliefs, or for constellating a disparate array of importances into shared ground for going forward.

Exploring aspects of that can be very important for professional life, which gives reason for the appeal of academic inquiry into interaction’s potential for progressive fruitfulness.

next—> a lesson in progressive pragmatism