MILLENNIAL COMPACT WITH AMERICA NLC An Agenda for the Future Acknowledgments Written by Millennials, focused on the future, and designed to bring a spirit of entrepreneurship to our politics, the NLC Millennial Compact with America will be a comprehensive statement of millennial policy. This agenda is made possible, first and foremost, due to the immense dedication of the NLC community – our alumni, our chapter advisory boards, and current and past leadership teams and staff. A special thank you to the authors of the policy memos within this document. These NLC alumni and community members have set the foundation upon which NLC will build our generation’s agenda. Many thanks are owed to our partners, friends and mentors. Special gratitude is owed to the dozens of advisors who gave of their time and talents to support our authors along this journey. Thank you to Bret Perkins, who chaired this project and supported its work. Thanks is owed to the NLC staff who dedicated countless hours coordinating policy roundtables, supporting authors, editing, proofreading, and designing to develop the Millennial Compact with America. Thank you to NLC’s board of directors for their continued support for our mission and our work. This is just the beginning of the the millennial generation’s agenda. NLC Board of Directors Chris Kelly Joy Dixon Sherry Merfish Claire Silberman Mitchell Draizin Tricia Mueller Alex Sink Caroline Fayard Patrick Murphy Heather Grantham Donnie Fowler David Pepper Robert J. Abernethy Cynthia Guerrero Bret Perkins Justin Braz Gina LaPlaca Mark Riddle Hardie Davis, Jr. Derrick H. Lewis James Woodson Nate Loewentheil ABOUT NEW LEADERS COUNCIL OUR MISSION: To recruit, train and promote the next generation of progressive leaders. NEW LEADERS COUNCIL (NLC) is a 501(c)(3) and hosts the NLC Institute, the leading training program for progressive Millennials. NLC equips our leaders with the skills to run for office, manage campaigns, create start ups and networks of thought leaders. NLC leaders take their activism back into their communities and workplaces to impact progressive change. NLC recruits Fellows from outside traditional power structures and equips them with the skills necessary to be civic leaders in their communities and workplaces. The highly selective NLC Institute is the premier leadership and professional development program training, mentoring, and networking progressives across the nation. NLC graduates are an ever-expanding corps of diverse, new progressive leaders who are rising to the top of their respective fields. NLC has created an exciting network of individuals, highly skilled in working together across sectors to improve the progressive infrastructure and ensure strong democracy, social justice, and equal opportunity. Our 2018 class will join 48 chapters, 5,000 alumni, and other supporters in every region of the United States. NLC alumni are business executives, nonprofit leaders, elected officials, organizers, teachers, and entrepreneurs. NLC is a true reflection of the Millennial generation with 57% of our NLC community as non-white and 53% women. The NLC community is an unparalleled network of passionate, committed young professionals who, together, are the future of progressive leadership in America. We stand united to eradicate unjust economic, social, and legal systems while building ladders of opportunity. In the competition of ideas, we commit to Progressivism’s triumph. To its cause, we stake our generational claim. And in our patriotic duty, we are confident that we will forge a more perfect Union to secure the blessings of Liberty for all. We continue today building a new generation of leaders pledged to action in the cause of our futures. The 2018 Institute Application & Nominations are OPEN: Apply: newleaderscouncil.org/apply Nominate: newleaderscouncil.org/nominate “...hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it." -- President Barack Obama, Iowa 2008 Today the Millennial generation wakes as a political force. This generation—the largest voting bloc in history—who came of age in crisis, and committed to a firm belief in progress, is no longer content to follow. As a commitment to civic leadership, we come together to begin the process of stating our generation’s agenda. Written by Millennials, focused on the future, and designed to bring a spirit of entrepreneurship to our politics, the NLC Millennial Compact with America will be a comprehensive statement of millennial policy. The Millennial Compact brings together emerging scholars and activists to set an agenda for innovating how we structure our economy, our social systems, and the rules of our democracy for the 21st Century. Our ideas come from diverse communities across the country. We are bringing together a new generation of leadership from Maine to Montana; California to Georgia; Kentucky to Colorado; The Carolinas to Oklahoma; Ohio to Iowa; Pennsylvania to Texas; and, Nebraska to Florida—to name just a few. We therefore invite you to join us in a national conversation. Starting in Chicago, Illinois, NLC will present this agenda in communities across the country over the course of the coming year. We will be hosting a conversation led by our NLC community - 48 chapters and 5,000 alumni - that will involve an inclusive process that invites you to offer new solutions to issues already identified, explore topics not yet covered, and build on this document to ensure that the final product is truly of, by, and for the people. That is what makes the millennial progressive generation such a force in American history. Our commitment to transparency and inclusion, and the belief that when we implement these ideas, we can unleash the full potential of all of our people, and ensure that we have a government that not only serves, but empowers all in a just and equitable way. This agenda will refuse to compromise on principles and is aimed at fixing our broken political reality. We are all Americans, and it is our generational duty to forge the American ideal of progress. Today, we present to the country the fruit of our labor: the Millennial Compact with America. Statement of Principles We the People Progressives are first and foremost Patriots who stand for Freedom, Opportunity, and Community for All. New Leaders Council, dedicated to building a new generation of progressive leaders, endorses this statement as the best expression of our commitment to America. Preamble for Patriotic Progressives We believe that Progressives must fight for equal and equitable opportunity for all to live the American dream. We believe that Progressives must secure economic fairness for all and special privilege for none. We believe that Progressives must demand the liberty to enjoy freedom in all of its aspects, from a woman’s right to choose to all peoples’ freedom to choose whom we love. We believe that Progressives must commit to a just, inclusive and compassionate society, where the potential and well being of each citizen is not limited by circumstance of birth, or race or class, or health or age, or any other factor of identity. And we believe that Progressives must stand for a society of sustainable progress—where we maintain fiscal responsibility, environmental stability, and social equality, with the laws of our land applied fairly to all of We, the People. Progress Demands Community Our values show that individual liberty, properly secured, demands community action. We acknowledge that the American experience is always evolving and never easy. From our Founding Fathers to Civil Rights Movement to Women’s Suffrage to Marriage Equality, we Progressives know that the work is never completed. Each generation must take up the business of building a more perfect union—one that ensures the security of the people, against both external threats and the tyranny of circumstance. We welcome the responsibility to broaden the protection of this contract, by fostering individual commitment to civic duty and societal commitment to protecting and enhancing individual opportunity. Further, we declare the basic truth that we are in this together, that our fates are intertwined, and that our individual lives are dependent on the strength of our communities. Today, we accept our full measure of duty in strengthening the social fabric of the American community. Progress Emerges from a Just Society Our values dictate that to truly establish Justice, we commit ourselves to equality before the law and before cir- cumstance. We believe that justice is a social effort, not just a legal one. Yes, we must secure legal redress for wrongs, and, yes, we must build a legal system that is truly blind to the biases of circumstance. But truly securing Justice demands more. A progressive society does not wait for Justice; it actively seeks to redress injustice. It affirmatively seeks to keep its promises made to its seniors, veterans, and underserved communities—and it combats systemic bias and racism at all levels. Therefore we fight for a community committed to finding, and fixing, injustice in all its forms. Progressives seek a so- ciety that expands the opportunity to vote and to be heard; a society that allows individuals to access the health care they need to prosper; and a society that protects all people’s right to privacy, to inherent dignity, and freedom from fear. Progress Requires an Economy that Empowers Every Individual We believe that everyone is created equal. And that each has equal claim to an equal share of economic opportunity. We commit ourselves to an economy that fosters each individual and maximizes their potential.