Framing the Future
How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and Influence People
By Bernie Horn
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
San Francisco, 2008
We’re not for big government, we’re for smart government--the government Americans need to protect freedom, promote opportunity, and provide security--and not one bit more.
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Who Are the Persuadables?
... In general, they’re the citizens who are least interested in politics. After all, if they paid attention, the would already have taken a side.
To political activists’ ears, that may sound like an insult: it is not. The persuadables are normal people. Instead of fixating on the next Democratic presidential nominee, they are thinking about what to fix for dinner tonight, chores that need to be done next weekend, and how to pay for the kid’s braces next year. Just by reading this book (or by writing it) we’re singling ourselves out as oddballs.
Almost by definition, persuadable voters don’t care a whole lot about who wins elections.
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Persuadable voters don’t like the processes of government; they like the results. The processes make them think of unfairness, inefficiency, bureaucratic bloat, and endless waste. So talk about the results--freedom, opportunity, and security.
"Politics," says Bernie Horn, "is too important to be left to the professionals in Washington." It’s hard not to love a book that so directly appeals to progressive dedication to participatory democracy--and provides a sterling set of guidelines on how to make our ideals prevail.
Fans of nuts-and-bolts framing discussions should make room on the book shelf for the newest entry into the field by Horn, a senior director for Policy and Communications at the Center for Policy Alternatives. Framing the Future draws on some of the research of Drew Westen as well as some of the theories of George Lakoff. In practical terms, Horn gets down to basics of specific ways to talk about progressive ideas and policies in the way that Jeff Feldman does in his book, Framing the Debate.
Horn proposes a simple, straightforward and easily remembered credo for progressives to hang their persuasive efforts on: the triple notions of freedom, opportunity and security. He argues that these three frames--tested by pollster Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partner--are the counterweight to the right wing’s successful four-part elevator pitch of small government, low taxes, strong defense and family values. The use of freedom, opportunity and security, Horn says, corresponds to the three different reactions we as progressives want from government: non-intervention in private matters, leveling the playing field between the most powerful and the least powerful, and enforcing and regulating when safety is at stake. And like all other "framers," he urges us to discard policy laundry lists and focus on the principles:
The first rule is focus on the value, not the public policy. Emphasize the value of freedom when government action would violate individual rights, opportunity when government should act as a referee, and security when government should be a protector.
Through various issues, Horn illustrates these axioms in action. Anything to do with invasion of our civil liberties falls under the heading of "freedom." "Opportunity" arguments are to be made whenever great disparities are discerned -- in educational access, or tax and wage inequalities. Most importantly, the author argues eloquently for a much broader concept and use of the term, "security," by progressives. The notion should encompass not just defense from enemies or law-and-order policies, but protection from toxins in the environment, efficient response to national disasters and care for the health of our citizens.
I was a bit skeptical about the cure-all power of these three categories when they were proposed early on in the book, but I was believer by the end after reading through his practical applications. My one major quibble is that I would add a fourth element -- justice and/or fairness -- to the pitch. Horn enfolds that idea into the "opportunity" category, but I think it is a powerful concept, deeply grounded in the American psyche, that can stand on its own (and still be applied to all three other classifications.)
Like others in the framing field, Horn bemoans progressives’ tin ear when it comes to discussing progressive values with what he calls the "persuadables" -- those voters who don’t hang on every political trend, are generally underinformed compared with political junkies and who are busy living complicated lives rather than keeping up with every twist and turn of policy. He delivers some news many progressives are unwilling to hear, and he does so quite starkly at the beginning of the book:
The Generic Conservative Message Works!
Do you wonder why the conservative message is so popular? There’s nothing wrong with their ideas! Who wants a bigger government than we need? Who favors unlimited government? Who can oppose a strong national defense? Who is against morality?...
It is not so surprising that these ideas are popular. What’s astonishing is that progressives refuse to admit it, Let’s understand that government should be limited--in fact, we have principles that lay out government’s proper role. Let’s agree on moral government--we have a few ideas on how to accomplish that. And for heaven’s sake, let’s agree that we’re for a strong national defense. Getting into a debate over whether we need a strong defense is like answering the question "When did you stop beating your wife?" The question is not whether we favor security, it is how to pursue security.
Accept that the generic conservative philosophy is attractive, and from a certain over-generalized viewpoint, the philosophy is right. Let’s not argue against conservative principles, let’s reframe problems so that persuadable voters want to apply progressive principles instead.
Starting with where people are and finding agreement on these core shared values is vital, Horn says, to building a bridge and walking the persuadables over to progressive values. One of the key points in this strategy is recognizing that this country was founded on--and still adores--the idea of rugged individualism. Yes, progressives know that much individualism has been communally subsidized, and yes, progressives want a more "common good" basis for society. But Horn looks the truth in the face and once again does not shy away from the obvious:
... we can’t force a communalistic philosophy on an individualistic nation. Let me be clear. The progressive-liberal-Democratic base of voters would gladly accept and espouse a communitarian philosophy. I, too, wish that American culture were more oriented toward altruism and community. But it isn’t. A realistic progressive philosophy is one that accepts our national culture of individualism and competition and--nevertheless--seeks to make the American dream accessible to all.
The inability of progressives to incorporate some of these core nationalistic beliefs is summed up in several section titles Horn lays out describing some of the reasons the liberal message isn’t resonating: "We Inform When We Should Frame," "We Talk to Persuadables Using Our Language Instead of Theirs," "We Use Ideological Language Even Though Persuadables Are the Opposite of Ideologues." He also offers some insightful--and message-tested--advice about how to talk more productively about our values and our policies:
Americans are more likely to support a plan framed as protecting people from being denied something important than on framed as giving or providing that same right or benefit. For example, they are much more favorable to a law that "prohibits pharmacists from denying" contraception to women than one that "requires pharmacists to provide" contraception--even though it means the same thing.
In a section entitled The Free Market Isn’t, Horn provides a pitch-perfect quick list--worth the price of the book--on how to talk about the plentiful ways in which the "free" market is gamed in favor of the rich and multi-national corporations, with concrete examples of direct subsidies, indirect subsidies, sweetheart contracts, phony markets, noncompetitive markets, broken markets, protection from imports, tax avoidance, barriers to labor organizing and corrupt markets.
His prevailing message is uplifting--our ideas are great and embraceable!--while still cautionary, particularly to those progressives who stubbornly insist on policy prescriptions and ideological theories when trying to persuade:
It is possible for people to reject an old set of beliefs and embrace a new one, but it usually takes a catastrophic event or years of exposure to new information. A political campaign is not the place to educate voters--it’s the place to persuade them. Politics is not a battle of information; it is a battle of ideas.
Perhaps the best message of all to take from this excellent how-to book is this one:
We need to provide voters with a bridge from the preconception to our solutions. Our goal is not the change people’s minds, it is to show them that they agree with us already.
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