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Strategic Initiatives: Until now, progressive strategies for change have consisted largely of small, narrowly focused intiatives. There is a better way. Strategic Initiatives think big—they coordinate smaller agendas into broader, more ambitious policy directions and put conservatives on the defensive.
Progressive Frames for Taxes: The Tax Relief frame illustrates how frames control public debate. It is time for progressives to fight back with frames that effectively and honestly represent the progressive view of taxation.
The Radical Right's Weakness: The radical Right's messaging and framing infrastructure doesn't seem so fearsome if you know how to spot its weaknesses.
Creating a Progressive Values Movement: Progressives must become aware of the values they share in order to achieve a consensus of ideas while maintaining their individuality.
Reframing 'Reform': Blogger Mark Schmitt laudably highlights the important role framing plays in making sense of the current Congressional scandals: <a href="http://markschmitt.typepad.com/decembrist/2006/01/please_dont_say.html">http://markschmitt.typepad.com/decembrist/2006/01/please_dont_say.html</a> Who is responsible for the honest functioning of our government? When we call the present indiscretions a lobbying scandal or legislate for lobbying reform this not only demonstrates but actually reinforces a particular understanding of who’s to blame: the lobbyists. Calling it a Congressional scandal and demanding integrity from the leaders we elect reframes both the past culpability and future responsibility for proper functioning of government.
The Value of Values: An early look at ideas from the Rockridge Manual for Progressives. More resources from this project can be found <a href="/thinkingpoints">here</a>.
The Framing of Immigration: Framing is at the center of the recent immigration debate. Simply framing it as about “immigration” has shaped its politics, defining what count as “problems” and constraining the debate to a narrow set of issues. The language is telling. The linguistic framing is remarkable: frames for illegal immigrant, illegal alien, illegals, undocumented workers, undocumented immigrants, guest workers, temporary workers, amnesty, and border security. These linguistic expressions are anything but neutral. Each framing defines the problem in its own way, and hence constrains the solutions needed to address that problem. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we will analyze the framing used in the public debate. Second, we suggest some alternative framing to highlight important concerns left out of the current debate. Our point is to show that the relevant issues go far beyond what is being discussed, and that acceptance of the current framing impoverishes the discussion.
Five Years After 9/11: Drop the War Metaphor: Language matters, because it can determine how we think and act.
Proposed Resolution on Iraq
The Rumsfeld Dilemma: Demand an Exit Strategy Not a Facelift
Twelve Traps to Avoid
What Would Real Election Integrity Mean?
What Are Americans Voting For?
Children of Rousseau and Hobbes: How Neocon David Brooks Gets Human Nature (and Everything Else) Completely Wrong
Freedom, Progressive Values, and Religion
Gonzales Pleads the Ken Lay Defense
Shifting the Climate of Security
To Catch a Wolf: How to Stop Conservative Frames in Their Tracks
Summers of Love: What the Media Is Missing about the Summer of Love
Snidely, Saddam and Melodramocracy: Forget Nell, Can Democracy Escape in Time?
Debating Energy as if Communities Mattered
Rockridge Institute Accomplishments in Review - June 2007
The Coming Biofuels Disaster
The Dangerous Framing of Congress as an Inept Community
Congress, Bush and The Real Constitutional Crisis: America is in the midst of an authentic constitutional crisis as the Bush Administration moves to reduce Congress to little more than an irrelevant focus group and achieve what no U.S. President has ever achieved: a true above-the-law presidency.
Fishing for Fowl: Elite Media's Pursuit of the Elusive Netroots: The elite media struggles to capture the essence of the netroots. It's difficult to characterize this growing political phenomenon when the developments under scrutiny can't be pinned down. The movement draws its strength from its non-essentiality and remains one step ahead of easy categorization.
The Trouble with the DLC
Why the Political Press Loved Karl Rove
Wikipedia White Washing: There's Truth in Facts and Frames: If Wikipedia embraces the relationship between facts and frames, then it could bring a new understanding of information to millions of people.
The American Tragedy of Our Troops Held Hostage
Credit Cards for Everyone, But a Voter ID for Thee
Could You Explain a Vote Against Children's Health to the Children?
Sample Letter to the Editor for Children's Health
The Logic of the Health Care Debate
Introduction to Rockridge's Health Care Campaign
Don't Think of a Sick Child: The Framing of the Rockridge Institute's Health Care Security Ad
Slippery Scribes Shaft Striking Screenwriters
A Very Blackwater Thanksgiving: Profiteers are wrecking our health and destroying our security.
Climate and the Psychology of Loss
America Betrayed: Will Progressives Take the Fall?: The story of Iraq will be told as a story of betrayal. But which version of that story prevails – who is cast as the betrayer – will have profound and lasting consequences for the future of our country.
Do Americans Believe in the Wisdom of the Public?: The Promise of Popular Democracy
Why Voters Aren't Motivated by a Laundry List of Positions on Issues: In this article Joe Brewer and George Lakoff provide an introduction to cognitive policy - the values, frames, and arguments that make sense of the political process.
Losing Our Minds over Immigration: On the issue of immigration, politicians and much of the mainstream media are playing with our minds. By repeating the phrase "illegal immigrants," they're creating a misleading stereotype. It's inaccurate. And, it's distracting us from the real issue — economic exploitation of all low-wage workers in the U.S.
Doing Good through Government
Comparing Climate Proposals: A Case Study in Cognitive Policy
Introduction to the Promise of Popular Democracy
The Promise of Popular Democracy, Part I: The Ancient Egalitarian Origins of Democracy
To Respect and Protect: Expanding Our Discourse on Immigration
The Rockridge Era Ends
The Promise of Popular Democracy, Part II: Solidarity of the Shaken
The Promise of Popular Democracy, Part III: The Promise

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