At last,
and none too soon, progressives are learning to connect with the mainstream.
Since most Americans support progressive positions on most issues, communicating
with Middle America is critical.
If Kerry-Edwards
win on November 2, the progressive movement will need to mobilize massive
support for the new Administration and insist that it live up to its
promise. By doing so, we can bring "One America" closer to
reality. If Bush wins, the imperative to strengthen our movement will
be even more urgent.
Many methods
are needed. The progressive movement needs visionaries who plant seeds,
push the envelope, and open minds to new possibilities. We need nonviolent,
direct action to move matters forward. We need policy wonks to craft
well informed legislation. We need media and marketing skills to reach
wider audiences. And, as Susan Strong, Metaphor
Project founder, puts it, we need activists who know how to "talk
American."
With all
this in mind, Toward
Peace, a loose network of activists based in San Francisco, has
initiated an independent Reaching
Beyond the Choir Project that will identify for the progressive
movement one or more concise statements of purpose clearly rooted in
underlying American moral values.
With the
1996 publication of Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives
Think, George Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University
of California at Berkeley, made a major breakthrough by analyzing how
political language works. Four years ago, Lakoff co-founded the Rockridge
Institute to "reframe the terms of political debate."
Recently, interest in Lakoff has increased dramatically. In the last
year, he caused a great stir with his
presentation at the Take
Back America 2004 Conference. He has been consulted by several Democratic
presidential candidates, made a presentation at the Democratic Senators'
annual retreat, been invited to address the California delegation at
the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and worked with more than 100
advocacy organizations. Magnolia Films is currently producing a
documentary on his work. He has been widely quoted in the national
media and on July 23, he was interviewed on "NOW
with Bill Moyers."
At the Take
Back America conference, Lakoff argued that progressive activists need
to use value-based messages that touch people more deeply than is the
case with traditional, issue-oriented platforms. By first connecting
to the progressive side of people who are ambivalent, we can then talk
more persuasively about policy ideas.
According
to Lakoff, political beliefs are layered onto deep-seated moral convictions
about what is right and wrong, how people should live, and how parents
should raise their children. These convictions are instilled at an early
age and are often unconscious or semi-conscious. Political conflict
often derives from disagreements about what is moral behavior.
Americans
want government to act in concert with and reinforce their moral convictions.
As they want parents to raise good children, they want government to
foster good citizens. So Americans respond positively to politicians
and activists who share their sense of morality.
Unfortunately,
progressives have largely left the moral arena to the radical right.
By appearing to be the ones who care most about morality, the radical
right seized a major tactical advantage. But progressives are beginning
to articulate more clearly the moral foundation of their worldview.
If we continue to move in this direction, we can win the debate about
moral values because our perspective is more inclusive, humane, and
sustainable.
From Lakoff's
perspective, personal morality, social values, and political principles
reinforce one another. Progressive personal morality affirms that both
parents are equally accountable for nurturing their children and raising
them to be nurturers who experience empathy and accept responsibility.
This morality leads to social values such as opportunity, service, cooperation,
trust, honesty, strength, and progressive individualism.
These values
promote progressive political principles that are widely supported by
the American people. In particular, most Americans embrace what Lakoff
calls the "American Commitment," which declares that if you
work hard, play by the rules, and pay your dues, the nation will provide
protection, freedom, fairness, political equality, prosperity, the best
possible natural environment, healthy communities, and a reasonable
standard of living. Other principles identified by Lakoff include political
equality, responsible government, and moral leadership.
Bill Clinton
demonstrated the effectiveness of talking about values, but he mistakenly
did so by moving to the center, rather than helping to revitalize America's
progressive tradition. "When you move to the middle, you shoot
yourself in both feet," Lakoff stated during a
recent interview on KPFA-FM in Berkeley. "You not only alienate
your base, but you also wind up helping the other side by activating
their model and their positions. So the appropriate thing to do is to
speak to your base, because that also speaks to the folks in the middle."
In this
year's presidential campaign, John Edwards adopted Lakoff's approach
and touched a nerve with his "Two Americas" speech. His call
for "One America" affirms that the nation should be like a
family -- united and caring for one another.
After being
informed during the "NOW with Bill Moyers" interview that
Kerry recently used the word "values" 28 times in a 40-minute
speech, Lakoff commented, "He's right. You have to say it over
and over. But now there's the next step. You can't just repeat the word
values. You have to say what they are. You have to start talking about
things like fairness, safety, freedom, community, trust, honesty, integrity.
These are values. Then he has to say why he has them in detail. And
then every time he mentions a program or an idea he has to say why they
follow from these values."
To date,
the co-sponsors of the Reaching Beyond the
Choir Project are unaware of a short, comprehensive "Statement
of Purpose" for the progressive movement that uses values-based
language of the sort recommended by Lakoff.
So the goal
of this Project will be to find any such statements summing up the key
aims of the progressive movement that have already been written and
encourage the writing of new ones. Individuals, informal groups, and
organizations are invited
to submit statements up to 2000 words in length. During and following
a post-election public forum, project participants will discuss, evaluate,
and rank the statements that emerge, and then widely disseminate the
results of these deliberations.
This process
may produce one statement that clearly gathers the most support. Such
a statement could help provide a unifying focus for the progressive
movement and help facilitate the formation of one or more new coalitions
that will advance our cause more effectively than would be the case
with continued fragmentation. On the other hand, several statements
with strong support may surface, in which case various statements might
be used in different situations.
Progressive
activists need to learn from Lakoff, Kerry, Edwards, and others, and
apply these lessons to grassroots organizing. If we do, we'll be better
able to build a popular force that can persuade elected officials to
practice what they preach.
