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...
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...
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...
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)...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...