Framing the Future: How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and Influence People

By Bernie Horn

A veteran political consultant offers a crash course in the nuts and bolts of framing progressive political messages in ways that win elections.
 
Polls consistently show that most Americans are progressives at heart. By margins of at least two to one, we favor affordable healthcare for all, federal action on climate change, stricter gun control, safe abortion rights, and more. So why is it so hard for progressive candidates to win elections? Because, says Bernie Horn, most progressives don’t explain their ideas in ways that resonate with “persuadables”—the significant slice of the electorate who don’t instantly identify as Democrats or Republicans. 
 
Framing the Future examines messaging strategies and concepts that have helped progressive candidates succeed across the nation, even in such conservative bastions as Montana, Arizona, and Florida. Drawing on rigorous polling data and firsthand experience, Horn explains how persuadable voters think about issues and make political decisions—and why, as a result, the usual progressive approaches are practically designed to fail. 
 
Horn shows readers how to use three bedrock American values—freedom, opportunity, and security—to frame progressive positions in a way that creates a consistent, unified political vision that will appeal to persuadable voters. He even offers advice on specific words and phrases to use when talking about a variety of issues and ideas

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Dec 31, 2007
• ISBN: 9781609944230

Book preview

Framing the Future

FRAMING THE FUTURE

How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and Influence People

Bernie Horn

Framing the Future

Copyright © 2008 by Bernie Horn

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For Nancy

"In talking to people, don’t begin by discussing the things on which you differ. Begin by emphasizing—and keep on emphasizing—the things on which you agree. Keep on emphasizing, if possible, that you are both striving for the same end and that your only difference is one of method and not of purpose."

Dale Carnegie

How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936)

ix

Preface

Work-booted, buzz-cut farmer Jon Tester seems an unlikely hero for progressive America. But on November 7, 2006, he delivered the United States Senate back into the arms of a Democratic majority by defeating an eighteen-year incumbent to become the junior senator from Montana. Montana, for heaven’s sake!

This is a state where conservatives outnumber liberals 40 to 15 percent and where, in 2004, President Bush defeated Senator Kerry by 59 to 39 percent. Yet Tester ran on a platform that harshly criticized the war in Iraq, urged the repeal of the USA Patriot Act, opposed Bush’s tax cuts, defended abortion rights, supported stem cell research and a higher minimum wage, and condemned any constitutional amendment that would ban flag burning or same-sex marriage. In other words, Jon was a progressive without apology or obfuscation. In Montana.

There’s something about the way he speaks to voters. It’s hard to put your finger on it because it’s not just the words he uses. There’s his confident tone of voice, his open posture—and of course—his retro haircut. But consider this: when attacked for criticizing the USA Patriot Act, Jon replied:

Let me be clear, I don’t want to weaken the Patriot Act, I want to repeal it.… What it does is it takes away your freedoms. This country was based on freedom. Hundreds of thousands of Americansx have fought and died for our freedoms. Take away our freedoms and the terrorists will have won.

Jon Tester makes himself clear. He demonstrates strong principles and a vision of how things should be. Voters not only know what he stands for today, they feel confident they know what he’ll stand for tomorrow. In short, U.S. Senator Jon Tester uses progressive values to frame the future.

Keith Ellison is one of a kind. In 2006, he became the first Muslim in history to be elected to the United States Congress. Although he ran in a reliably Democratic district, his campaign was anything but run of the mill.

Right-wingers attacked Keith’s religion and questioned his patriotism. Even after he won the election, the host of a CNN talk show confronted him on national television, saying, "prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."

Shortly thereafter, both a right-wing radio host and a Virginia Congressman excoriated Keith because, they said, he was going to take the oath of office with his hand over the Koran instead of a Christian Bible.

Keith Ellison could have argued the facts—pointing out, for example, that members of Congress take the official oath of office without any book whatsoever. Christian Bibles are often used for reenactment photo ops afterwards, but some representatives have used a Jewish Bible or a Book of Mormon. Instead, he said this:

Maybe it’s a beautiful thing that all faiths, all colors, all cultures can come to America and swear to uphold one constitution. Maybe that’s a strength, maybe that’s something we should celebrate, maybe that’s something that doesn’t happen elsewhere on the globe.

When challenged, Keith seizes the moral high ground. He confidently lays out his principles, his vision for America. It’s hard not to like him, even if you disagree. Congressman Keith Ellison uses progressive values to frame the future.

xiAt least framing the future is how we describe it at the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), where I serve as senior director for policy and communications. Both Jon and Keith are Flemming Fellows, our shorthand way of saying that they are alumni of CPA’s Arthur Flemming Leadership Institute, which has pioneered values-based leadership.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and Congressman Ron Klein of Florida, who in 2006 fought tough battles to win seats previously held by conservative Republicans, are Flemming Fellows. So are Congressman Kendrick Meek of Florida, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, and Congresswoman Grace Napolitano of California. Since 1994, more than four hundred state senators and state representatives—Democrats and Republicans from all fifty states—have graduated from the Flemming Institute, learning how to use values to frame progressive public policy. In recent years, we at CPA have also taught these techniques to hundreds of legislators, candidates, and activists outside the Flemming program.

Framing the future works. Every year, Flemming Fellows win a disproportionately large share of the progressive victories in the states. In fact, since the great leap backward of 2001, as one policy disaster after another was spawned in our nation’s capital, Flemming Fellows and their allies made significant gains in state capitals all over the nation. These legislators have been the vanguard of the progressive movement, proposing and enacting some of America’s most far-reaching, innovative measures—expanding health care coverage, lowering prescription drug prices, raising the minimum wage, banning discrimination against gay, lesbian, and transgender Americans, mandating the use of cleaner energy sources, strengthening unemployment insurance, guaranteeing access to emergency contraception, ending racial profiling, stopping identity theft, and the list goes on.

The purpose of this book is to show you—an activist, advocate, campaigner, candidate, or political observer—how to use this same approach to persuade others.

It’s an approach that’s both consistent with the advice of Dale Carnegie’s classic How to Win Friends and Influence People and informed by the work of Susan Bales at the FrameWorks Institute. FrameWorks appliesxii conclusions from decades of scholarly research in the social and cognitive sciences to contemporary message development, and unlike some other progressive framers, it uses focus groups and polling to test its recommended language. (The Frameworks website—frameworksinstitute.org—offers message framing reports on early childhood development, health care reform, gender equity, global interdependence, and more.)

This book is also backed up by a lot of on-the-ground research. CPA executive director Tim McFeeley and I have presented message framing workshops all over the country, allowing me to get feedback from hundreds of battle-hardened lawmakers, candidates, campaign managers, and volunteers. I also conducted an electronic survey to get advice from hundreds of political insiders.

Finally, this book is informed by a groundbreaking, nationwide survey commissioned by the Center for Policy Alternatives and authored by one of America’s top pollsters, Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners. This poll had two distinctive features. First, it included a huge oversample of persuadable voters, which allowed Lake Research to zero in on their thinking. As Celinda puts it, These are the voters that determine who wins close elections. Second, it was fielded in the days immediately after the 2006 election. As a result, the respondents are people who actually voted, not people who claimed ahead of time—sometimes erroneously—that they were going to vote. Most important, these voters are telling us what they thought and felt after absorbing the full force of the campaign ads and news coverage of a major national election. The timing makes this poll special—we have the chance to capture these kinds of voter attitudes only once every two years.

In short, Framing the Future is not an academic or theoretical book, even though Chapter 1 suggests a political philosophy. Rather, it is designed and intended to give you proven, practical linguistic tools to win the next election, and to keep on winning.

Here’s what to expect. The introduction, The Emerging Progressive Majority, briefly lays out the opportunity facing progressives in the coming years. The rest of the book is divided into three parts. Part One, Ourxiii Moment in History, presents a new way to explain what progressives stand for and why this framework succeeds. Chapter 1, What We Believe, describes the overall progressive philosophy—freedom, opportunity, and security for all—and what each of those concepts means in a progressive world. Chapter 2, What’s Holding Us Back? suggests that progressives have been hampered by an inability to explain what principles they stand for. Chapter 3, The Winning Message, presents proof—in the form of polling data—that the proposed philosophy works. In fact, it is the only progressive message that attracts enough persuadable voters to defeat the generic conservative message (lower taxes, smaller government, strong military, and family values).

Part Two, The Mechanics of Persuasion, shifts gears from long-term philosophy to the day-to-day job of political persuasion. Chapter 4, Targeting the Persuadables, explains why our language must be tailored to appeal to a particular slice of undecided Americans and uses polling data to take you inside the heads of these voters for a look at their political beliefs. Chapter 5, How Framing Works, lays out the concepts of message framing in a user-friendly way for grassroots advocates and activists. Chapter 6, How Values Work, describes progressive values—each of which is a powerful message frame—and again provides polling results that show which values are the most persuasive.

Part Three, The Progressive Toolbox, attaches the philosophy to the mechanics, offering you specific how-to examples for reframing political issues and winning the debate. Chapter 7, Freedom, Opportunity, Security, demonstrates how to apply our progressive values to various issues. The final chapters list specific words and phrases to use and to avoid. Chapter 8 discusses terms that describe our philosophy and ourselves, Chapter 9 presents words that help you talk about government and government processes (taxes, regulation, and social services), Chapter 10 makes the case for the principle of fair markets when talking about the economy, and Chapter 11 suggests persuasive language on a wide range of hot-button issues. The concluding chapter, An Action Plan for Activists, returns us to the Flemming Fellows, reminds us how they win by framingxiv the future, proposes that the grassroots and netroots can rescue the progressive movement, and shows how that can be done.

You may think of this as a partisan battle. But I know progressive Republicans who are fighting for the soul of their party, and I know right-wing Democrats who are trying to steer their party down the wrong road. Yes, progressive Republicans are nearly extinct at the federal level, but down at the grassroots, you’ll find plenty of progressives in both parties. This book is for Americans of all stripes.

You may think that in today’s world the only important battles are over federal policy. But there are about half a million elected officials in states, cities, and counties who decide some of our nation’s most critical issues. Moreover, change at the national level becomes much more likely after states and localities act as laboratories of democracy, proving the practicality and effectiveness of new solutions. This book is for anyone interested in federal, state, or local policies and causes.

You may think this book is just for progressives. In truth, I often use the term we to mean we progressives—as in we believe this, we say that. But even if you don’t consider yourself a progressive, please read on. By the end of the first chapter, I hope you’ll see yourself as one of us.

Now, let us roll up our sleeves and get to work. With a clearer understanding of progressive principles and values—and a whole lot more legwork—we can win in 2008, 2010 and beyond. We can persuade our federal, state, and local governments to represent and defend the interests of all. And the promise of America—our common vision for a nation of peace and justice—may finally be fulfilled.

1

INTRODUCTION

The Emerging Progressive Majority

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 estate tax; favor quality, affordable health care for all even if it means raising your taxes; support the idea that the federal Medicare program should negotiate prescription drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies; want federal action to address global warming; would require auto manufacturers to make cars more energy efficient; say laws covering the sale of handguns should be more strict; think labor unions are necessary to protect workers; believe that gays and lesbians should be able to serve openly in the military; and do not want the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

That’s the good news. Here’s the bad. Most Americans