POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

I believe the purpose of politics is to create the conditions for people to live with dignity, purpose, and opportunity. Aristotle called this eudaemonia, the good life achieved through virtue and community. In Politics, he wrote that the city exists not only for the sake of living, but for living well. That idea shaped the beginnings of democratic thought, and eventually helped build the foundation of our country. 

When the founders created this nation, they drew from centuries of moral and political philosophy, studying thinkers such as Aristotle, Locke, and Montesquieu. They believed that freedom must be grounded in reason, virtue, and the consent of the governed. Thomas Jefferson carried those ideas into the Declaration of Independence, declaring that all people are created equal and that government exists to protect their natural rights. In doing so, America was founded not as a completed system but as an ongoing moral project, one that each generation must renew and strengthen.

The founders understood that liberty without justice leads to chaos, and equality without liberty leads to oppression. True democracy depends on the balance between freedom and fairness. As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10, the role of government is to refine and enlarge the public’s views through representation and reason. A true politician is the embodiment of the collective voice of their constituents, using organizational expertise and professional consultation to create systems that allow all of us equitable freedom.

However, our founders missed one vital piece: “all” means all, not just those of us with white skin. In 1791, Benjamin Banneker, a Black mathematician, astronomer, and author wrote to Thomas Jefferson and said:

“I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you … that we are a race of beings, who have long laboured under the abuse and censure of the world, that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt; and that we have long been considered rather as brutish than human, and scarcely capable of mental endowments.” Benjamin Banneker, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 19 Aug. 1791

Here, Banneker is holding Jefferson accountable, pointing out that he preaches about freedom and equality while owning enslaved people. Jefferson’s response showed that while he understood Banneker’s logic, he didn’t believe that Black people were born equal, implying that innate Black excellence still needed to be proven. Today, we know that no human needs to do anything to prove they should be treated equally. It is a birthright. Today, while many white people claim to not be racist, few are proactive in their pursuit of ensuring anti-racist establishments. White people have even gone as far as to appropriate and imitate Black culture and try to claim it as our own without acknowledging the centuries of oppression, abuse, and grotesque distortion of human decency. And it doesn’t stop there. We have also dehumanized brown people, indigenous people, disabled people, poor people, transgender people, women, immigrants, religious minorities, and countless others whose mere existence we deemed less than for no good reason. It is time for us to stand up and be the generation that carries forward the original values that built our country, and adapt them to what we have learned to be true: all people are created equally, all people deserve respect, compassion, and dignity and those who have been systematically oppressed must be brought to the front of the line in order to correct for the wrongful acts committed against them. 

Building on the true values of those who founded our country while acknowledging the need for proactive correction of their shortcomings, my political philosophy centers on three guiding values: community, equity, and empathy.

First, community is the heart of democracy. Aristotle believed that human beings are social by nature, and the founders echoed this belief when they pledged to form a more perfect union. A society only thrives when its people understand that their well-being is connected to one another. When we recognize the responsibility we share in uplifting our neighbors and work to hold each other accountable, that’s when we begin to form that perfect union. Our Government’s role in this is to serve as a partner to communities, empowering them to lead and make decisions for their benefit but still ensure they are upholding the American values of liberty, justice, and freedom, genuinely for all. 

In fighting to overcome oppression and reprimand systemic inequalities, equity is our most powerful tool and our measure of moral courage. John Rawls wrote that a fair society should be arranged so that inequalities work to the advantage of those with the least. Imagine you’re waiting in line to be born, your turn is up next, and you have no idea what hand you’re gonna be dealt on the other side. Wouldn’t you hope that no matter what, there would be a fair chance for you to survive and live a good life on the other side? Then, isn’t it only right that those of us who are more fortunate, lend a helping hand to those of us who are less fortunate? Still, true equity cannot exist without confronting the reality of systemic racism and the long shadow it casts on our nation’s promise. Angela Davis once said, “In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.” That truth reminds us that fairness cannot be theoretical, it must be active. None of us choose the color of our skin or the circumstances we’re born into, yet those characteristics still determine far too much about our future. A just society must not only ensure opportunity but correct the imbalances written into its history, so that liberty and fairness are more than ideals, they are lived realities for every person.

Taken together, these ideas remind us that the nation’s founding promise is incomplete until every person can access safety, education, and opportunity. 

Finally, empathy is the conscience of leadership. Adam Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments wrote that human progress depends on our capacity for “fellow-feeling.” A nation cannot endure without compassion and love for its people. As the Dalai Lama reminds us, “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” Empathy is not a weakness of leadership but its moral fabric that binds people together and gives purpose to progress. To lead with empathy is to remember that behind every law or policy are real people. The worker providing for their family, the teacher shaping young minds, and the nurse staying up late to care for a patient all deserve to be seen, valued, and protected.

Together, these values form the foundation of the kind of leadership I believe in. I consider myself progressive, but my progressivism is rooted in people, not ideology. I believe society can evolve toward greater fairness, but only through compassion, patience, and cooperation. Progress does not mean abandoning tradition; rather, it means learning from it and improving on it. I believe in clean energy and sustainability, but I also believe in standing with the workers whose livelihoods depend on the industries that built their cities. Reform, to me, should empower people rather than replace them.

Ultimately, America was founded on courage and hope, not comfort. It was built as an experiment in collective self-determination that depends on each generation’s willingness to grow wiser, more just, and more compassionate than the last. As President of the Young Democrats of Louisiana, I want to carry that vision forward. Together, we will build a movement grounded in community, guided by empathy, and driven by equity. Through this work, we can continue what began in Philadelphia and ensure that democracy always belongs to and works for all people. 

References

Adams, John. A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law. 1765.

Aristotle. Politics. Translated by Benjamin Jowett, circa 350 BCE.

Davis, Angela Y. Women, Culture & Politics. Vintage Books, 1990.

Dalai Lama XIV, and Howard Cutler. The Art of Happiness. Riverhead Books, 1998.

Jefferson, Thomas. The Declaration of Independence. 1776.

Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. 1690.

Madison, James. The Federalist No. 10. 1787.

Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, Baron de. The Spirit of the Laws. 1748.

Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press, 1971.

Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. 1759.

East's Plan for YDL