IdeaLog
Understand the anti-teacher narratives
Posted on September 29, 2014
If you listen to the advocates for increased standardized testing and decreased rights for teachers, you will hear a series of narratives or stories that underlie all their arguments. These stories are a powerful...
Should your police have military equipment?
Posted on September 16, 2014
More than 8,000 local police forces, including at least 117 college police agencies, have received more than $5 billion in military equipment from the federal government under the “1033 Program.” This obscure anti-terrorism program...
Is Obamacare now helping progressives?
Posted on
Right-wingers and the media have spent the past few years confidently asserting that Obamacare is a political albatross. This was backed up by polls that mindlessly combined conservatives who opposed the Affordable Care Act...
Progressive Values 101
Posted on September 1, 2014
It is an exaggeration to say that today’s progressives don’t have a philosophy. Progressives have a fairly consistent agenda–we know what we stand for. The problem is, we don’t have an effective framework to...
Are today’s progressives bad at message framing?
Posted on August 19, 2014
Looking back, without expensive consultants or focus groups, liberals of the 60s and 70s brilliantly framed their federal programs as the Peace Corps, Head Start, Model Cities, Fair Housing, Equal Employment Opportunity, and the...
D.C. School Test Results Reflect Utter Failure of “Reform” Policies
Posted on August 2, 2014
If this isn’t failure, what is? The latest results of the DC-CAS, the District of Columbia’s high-stakes standardized test, show that the percentage of public school students judged “proficient” or better in reading has...
Why Progressive Values Work
Posted on July 18, 2014
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 values, we address and reverse some...
Freedom Is Free
Posted on July 9, 2014
The Fourth of July is a time for both well-meaning and evil-intending people to misuse the word “freedom.” As a political concept, the only workable definition of “freedom” is that it’s the absence of...
Minimum wage wins, even in a conservative-controlled jurisdiction
Posted on June 24, 2014
Can progressives win a minimum wage hike even in conservative-controlled state? Yes, by playing smart, aggressive politics. A few weeks ago, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation to raise that state’s minimum wage from...
A Populist Platform for 2014
Posted on June 10, 2014
Want a policy platform for your candidacy or organization? Here is a one-page statement that reflects American values and includes economic policies that are all wildly popular: A Populist Platform for 2014 For the...