Anybody who's ever had to raise money knows the meaning of the phrase "elevator pitch": You're in an elevator with a potential moneybags, and you have, say, seven floors to tell him why he should write you a check.
Well, we all know the basic outline of conservatism's elevator pitch: "We believe in freedom and liberty, and we're for low taxes, less government, traditional values, and a strong national defense." But what is liberalism's? We at the Prospect have, among us, attended or sat on about eleventy hundred panels since the election at which someone invariably says something like the following: "We know what conservatives stand for. But what do we stand for?"
No one in Washington seems to know. So we turn to you. Give us liberalism's elevator pitch.
We want you to submit a single sentence of no more than 30 words; click here to send an email to our editors. Please include your name and hometown (or, if you'd prefer that we withhold your name if we post your entry, let us know that instead). We'll post some of our favorite entries as they come in, so bookmark this page and check back regularly. The Prospect staff will choose a winner by February 11, and he or she will receive a free one-year subscription to the Prospect, a copy of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s The Vital Center, an invitation to join our staff for a night out at our favorite haunt, and Robert Reich's voice on the home answering machine.