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About us

Mission

Heartland Democracy wins over Midwestern hearts and minds to just and sustainable policies through public engagement on shared progressive values, policy initiatives, and the power of active citizenship.

Our communities range from the block to the town, from the state to the region, and from the nation to the world. Communities exist, too, among colleagues, friends, and other groups in which two or more folks get together, in person or online. We note that many of us live, work, commute, and travel across state lines. We grew up in one state and live in another. We have friends and family across the Midwest. We share common values and principles. Heartland Democracy aims to regionalize thinking and collaboration so as to achieve in the Midwest together what we cannot accomplish alone.

Positioning & Value

Much more can and must be done to win over more Midwesterners to pragmatic progressive public solutions.  While existing strategies and groups are necessary, they are not sufficient.  Heartland Democracy is undertaking a unique combination of strategies to meet its vital mission.  We have got to make long-term investments now to bring a resurgence of practical progressivism across the Midwest.

Heartland Democracy engages directly with Midwestern youth, independent thinkers, centrists, and folks who are uninvolved in their community and politics.  Using shared values and critical issues as the bases and sparks for discussion, Heartland Democracy targets specific participants, institutions, demographic segments, and geographic areas for exchanges in which we weave together a coherent set of values, stories, history, facts, and ideas to reach the emotional factors so decisive in the shaping of mindsets. 

Working across state borders, Heartland Democracy is taking advantage of overlapping media markets, personal inter-state connections, and a common Midwestern ethos to reinforce common values, goals, and actions.  From the start, we are serving the existing community of progressive groups by directing Midwesterners to the work of other groups doing advocacy, mobilization, and organizing.  Drawing upon the rich history of reform in the Midwest, Heartland Democracy is restoring heartlanders’ pride in their traditions of clean government, reform, innovation, and high civic participation. 

Principles

Heartland Democracy defines itself and its work, in part, by the progressive values it highlights:  Community, Justice, Equality of Opportunity, Sustainability, and Accountability.