As President Obama said yesterday in Ohio, "we've run into a bit of a buzz saw" lately, especially this past week. The loss of a Massachusetts Senate seat has upset the health care reform process. The Supreme Court decision in Citizens United means even more corporate money spent to get Fred - our archetypal median voter - on their bandwagon. We progressives need Fred on our bandwagon, helping us "push that boulder up the hill" to shift the balance of wealth, power, and privilege away from the wealthy, powerful, and privileged.
The bad news: conservatives have more money and institutional clout, and they're happy to leave the boulder where it is or let it roll back down.
The good news: Fred does better when the boulder rolls up that hill. That truth is our trump card, and if we play it well, we can make progress.
More below the fold....
Making Our Bandwagon (Non-Cynical Saturday)
This week Morning Feature has looked at how corporate money is spent to influence public opinion. Thursday we discussed the bandwagon effect, how independent voters like Fred are more prone to jump on the bandwagon and support candidates and policies that seem to have majority support, and how industry lobbyists use skewed polls and talking point repetition to create the illusion of a majority. Yesterday we saw how cognitive dissonance makes us more likely to defend ideas if we've acted on them, how industry lobbyists use astroturf protests to deepen the commitment of their supporters and enhance the illusion of a majority, and how Citizens United makes it easier for them to use advertising to invite Fred to jump on their bandwagon.
Make no mistake: if Fred jumps on a bandwagon, it becomes a real majority. As we saw last Saturday, the data suggest that real majority can influence our elected leaders, at least on high-profile issues where there has been extensive public debate. So we need Fred on our bandwagon.
Be that Someone Else:
How can we progressive activists help get Fred on our bandwagon? For starters, we can stop waiting for Someone Else to do it for us. Yes, we have leadership issues. As I wrote two weeks ago, President Obama must learn to be more focused and forceful as our nation's Chief Executive and the Commander in Chief of our military. And I wrote last Friday, Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi need to "drain the swamp" and get legislation moving more swiftly. President Obama took a more assertive tone in Ohio yesterday - MSNBC described him as "combative" - and voiced similar thoughts about the slow and ugly legislative process.
But waiting for Someone Else to take the lead is never a good strategy. We progressive activists must accept responsibility and become that Someone Else. If your local Democratic Party doesn't have enough good progressive candidates for local and state offices, consider running for office. At the very least, get involved in helping your local party choose and campaign for better, more progressive candidates. Many of the government actions that have the greatest impact on our lives happen at the local and state level. More progressive government at that level will both deliver results for Fred and recruit and groom candidates for higher offices. As we discussed yesterday, taking action builds commitment and enthusiasm. But more on that shortly, because we can also do better here with our online activism....
Be a more progressive media:
Many of us would like to see a more progressive mainstream media. We can help influence that by being a more progressive media ourselves. Our party has taken a public relations beating over the past few months, and too much of that has been self-inflicted. There's a difference between advocating for more progressive policies and advocating against our own party and our leaders.
Some of that has to do with a misunderstanding of how the oft-cited Overton Window really works. That theory offers six levels of public acceptance for political ideas, ranging from Unthinkable through Radical, Acceptable, Sensible, and Popular, to Policy. The premise for advocating Unthinkable or Radical policies is not to get them enacted immediately, but to make less extreme ideas seem Acceptable and Sensible by comparison, so they will become Popular and then Policy. The Overton Window is an inherently incrementalist theory.
A more progressive media would advocate for Unthinkable and Radical ideas, while remembering we don't yet have Fred on board for those policies. We advocate the Unthinkable and Radical ideas to reduce Fred's wariness of other, less extreme changes. We ask Fred to test drive progressivism: "You'll love this for a cross-country trip, but let's take it around the block first." Calling our party and our leaders "corporate whores" and "sellouts" does not advance progressive ideas. It just makes Fred more cynical about our government, which is exactly what we need to overcome as progressives.
Look behind the curtain:
If progressivism is about government helping shift the balance of wealth, power, and privilege away from the wealthy, powerful, and privileged, we need Fred to believe government can do that and make his life better. We need Fred to trust government more than corporations.
The good news is that Fred does trust government more than corporations, still. That poll shows 56% of Americans trust government to do the right thing, vs. only 43% who trust corporations to do the right thing. The bad news that the media don't tell the story that way. The pollster's own story focused on different data showing greater distrust in government than in corporations. A Huffington Post story followed the pollster's summary.
As progressive activists, we need to "look behind the curtain" - often it's only a mouse-click or two away - and look at the actual data behind the headlines. It may be poll data, as here. It may be data about who is funding a poll, protest, or ad campaign. Sites like Campaign Ad Watch and FactCheck are also good sources. Once we start to "look behind the curtain" ourselves, we can then hold the curtain open for Fred and show him how he's being manipulated.
Take it to the streets:
Finally, we need to get busy in public activism - local party activities, house parties, rallies, holding election signs - and invite Fred to join us. Every time we get someone to help with those activities, we both deepen our own commitment and deepen his/hers as well. By doing so, we make ourselves, and Fred, less susceptible to industry-funded public relations manipulation.
We can unmake their bandwagon and make our own, but we can't wait for Someone Else to do it for us. We have to become that Someone Else.
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Happy Saturday!