Only progressive values can defeat conservative arguments

Posted on September 25, 2019

Most Americans are progressive on most issues. By margins of at least two to one, our fellow citizens: believe corporations and upper-income people are paying too little in federal taxes; oppose repealing the federal...

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Progressive values negate our negatives

Posted on September 11, 2019

Liberals, lefties, environmentalists, unionists, consumer advocates—all progressive types—suffer from negative stereotypes. Some of these stereotypes were invented by the right-wing messaging machine, and others are self-inflicted. By using progressive values, we address and reverse...

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What is message framing, anyway?

Posted on August 27, 2019

Good question! Let’s start with a little quiz specially crafted for history buffs. When were these political slogans in vogue, and what were they about? (1) Tippecanoe and Tyler Too (2) Don’t swap horses...

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It is time to ban assault weapons, again

Posted on August 15, 2019

We all know that some guns should be banned or severely restricted. Machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, silencers, grenades, and many other types of extremely dangerous weapons were essentially banned by the commonsense National Firearms Act (NFA)...

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Brand-new edition of our advocacy manual, Preparing to Win

Posted on July 31, 2019

Here is the Introduction to our brand-new Second Edition of Preparing to Win: Why an advocacy manual now? We want change; that’s why we are progressive advocates. We seek to redirect and reform public...

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Brand-new Fourth Edition of Voicing Our Values

Posted on July 17, 2019

This is the Introduction to our brand-new edition of Voicing Our Values: Politics is the art of persuasion. But persuasion is hard and getting harder. Today, facts are rationalized away and lies are ubiquitous....

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Why we celebrate the Fourth of July

Posted on July 3, 2019

This year, Donald Trump is twisting the traditional nonpartisan “Capitol Fourth” celebration in Washington, D.C. into a grotesque partisan rally featuring himself and military weaponry. This is wrong on so many levels. The Fourth...

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Avoid the passive voice

Posted on June 19, 2019

Richard Nixon and his press secretary were famously ridiculed for saying “mistakes were made.” And yet, the same phrase has been used by Democrats and Republicans ever since. To many people, the passive voice...

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Don’t repeat the opponents’ frame

Posted on June 3, 2019

In his book Don’t Think of an Elephant, Professor George Lakoff provides the most basic principle of framing: “Do not use their language. Their language picks out a frame—and it won’t be the frame...

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Please don’t reject messaging as “spin” or “manipulation”

Posted on May 22, 2019

As we go around the country giving messaging workshops, we’re nearly always asked whether our message framing is a gimmick. After all, conservatives make it seem like a cynical game. They refer to the...

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