I want to clear up some confusion about what it means to have a big tent.

It doesn't mean compromising your values to make your party palatable to the lowest common denominator.

It does mean backing politics. to the lowest common denominator.

It does mean backing policies that are so helpful to such huge numbers of struggling people

that folks from across the political divide see their differences as less important

than the values would unite us.

A big tent movement acknowledges that 78% of workers live paycheck to paycheck and addresses that problem with a plan to raise the minimum wage,

provide free at point of service health care, double union membership, and to vote against trade deals that

ship American jobs overseas.

A big tent shouldn't mean compromising with Republicans to cut Social Security, as Joe Biden has voted to do.

And it certainly doesn't require Pete to welcome donors from the healthcare and

pharmaceutical industries into his tent and subsequently flip-flop on Medicare for

all. It's crucial to understand this difference. Our tent is defined by progressive, humanistic values that are shared by a majority of Americans.

Not the preferences of some imaginary moderate voter whose preferences happen to always align with those of the special interest groups that control our government.

A big tent means that everyone who stands with you at the ballot box

might not agree on every issue.

But we stand together despite our differences

because we have more in common than what separates us.

Last weekend, I attended the Alabama Democratic Conference Annual Convention.

For Dr. Joe Reed, a figurehead in the State Democratic Party, said something that really

resonated with me.

He said, never leave an old friend to make a new one.

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