Not red and blue, just confused and angry

Sara Robinson (back to blogging after nearly a year's silence) discusses what communications experts Drew Westen and Celinda Lake presented at the recent Take Back the American Dream conference. They highlighted points and language progressives should use. The American public is hungry for this kind of talk and political candidates who use these ideas will go far, even in conservative America -- "there's no red or blue America -- just a confused and angry one," said Westen. Some of their points:

* Talk about morals. Not "every man for himself" but we're all in this together and we need to build community.

* Tell stories about people and tie them back to progressive principles.

* Tell stories that properly brand us as progressives (the GOP branding of liberals has been quite successful) and also brand the GOP.

* Make stories visceral and personal. Not revenues v. entitlements, but "raising taxes v. kicking Granny out of the nursing home." (Which brings to mind the Granny and the death panels debate so effective a year ago.)

* Stop using "entitlements" because it sounds like something that isn't deserved. Medicaid and Social Security are both insurance programs that we've paid with taxes. Better not deny a claim.

* Talk of clean air and water, not a vague term such as environment.

* The American Dream is a powerful frame for stories. We can easily attach progressive goals to it. The American Dream is tied to the job. When the job goes, the Dream shrivels.

* A big concern these days is economic security. Economic security includes a living wage, health care, secure retirement, and opportunities for the next generation to do better. We aren't expecting to be rich, we expect to work for what we get, but we don't want to be dumped out of the middle class. So stories can be geared towards that theme: We oppose tax breaks for the rich because they come at the expense of our kid's public education. We oppose corporate tax breaks because that encourages them to ship jobs overseas.

* Second big theme: America needs a strong middle class.

* Third big theme: Equal opportunity, there should be no barriers to success.



Robinson also summarizes what happened in Wisconsin and Ohio last winter. She sees Occupy Wall Street as a successor to what happened there.

At the height of the Wisconsin protests, 180,000 people were protesting. Gov. Scott Walker faces a recall vote soon. Walker tried to put a wedge between unions, exempting firefighters from his cuts. They saw through the ruse and joined the protests. On their way they stopped at their bank (not said what ties it had to Walker) and withdrew their savings, causing a run and the bank's failure. That's power.

Gov. Kasich in Ohio tried a similar union busting move. Eight weeks later 1.3 million signatures forced the issue to next month's ballot (one wonders how much all that paper weighs).

Walker doesn't appear to be all that smart. So where are all these union busting proposals coming from? The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative think-tank that writes up model legislation and sends it out to GOP led states. They're also hitting New Hampshire (the Dem Gov. has a ready veto pen) and, I suspect, Michigan and lots of other states.



I mention Michigan as a likely ALEC client because Equality Michigan reports (in an email) the state legislature has been busy with:

* Refusing to address bullying. Bills for that sit in committee.

* Denying health coverage to domestic partners of public employees. Bills have already passed the House. Contact your senator.

* Pushing legislation that would void local ordinances that prohibit discrimination against gays. That would overturn ordinances in 15 cities.

* Pushing legislation that would allow counselors of students to refuse to help students they don't like (meaning: they have a religious objection to gay kids). This violates professional ethics rules and interferes with university non-discrimination policies.