Introduction to Rockridge's Health Care Campaign

The national debate over the future of health care security is complex and confusing to many Americans. There is little doubt that the country is in the midst of a health care crisis as more than 100 million Americans find themselves underinsured, uninsured and without adequate health care. Advocates on multiple sides of the debate inundate voters with various plans, statistics, prescriptions, and political sloganeering. Yet, the confusion remains.

In launching this campaign, the Rockridge Institute is contributing to progressives as they consider and focus their health care message. We have written a thoughtful white paper, as well as talking points, prototype television advertisements, blog posts, op-eds, and other material designed to bring some consistency and honest framing to the cause of health care security. To the many groups and individuals engaged in this cause, it is our hope we will be of some help to your heroic efforts.

George Lakoff and the staff of the Rockridge Institute have done their best to analyze the deep frames and modes of thought involved in the health care debate. One of Rockridge's primary goals is the "democratization of knowledge." We hope the ideas are broadly distributed and used as those of you engaged in this effort might find helpful.

We offer analyses and background on the issue, as well as recommended framing. We're taking this all the way to powerful advertisements and other political messaging suggestions.

Framing for Rockridge is about the honest expression of the progressive moral view based upon empathy and responsibility for oneself and others. It is about recognizing government's role to protect and empower citizens. In other words, we want to communicate our moral view as directly as possible. We want to make sure the moral view is not lost in the fog of complex policy proposals.

A few key points to keep in mind:

• We need to tell the health care security story chapter by chapter. There is no single "silver bullet" sound bite that will carry the day. Our first ad, talking points, op-eds, etc. are intended to open the campaign, not conclude it.
• Facts and figures are important and we will give them. But contemporary cognitive science teaches us that emotions serve rationality. We need to emotionally engage our audience in ways that evoke empathy and responsibility.
• Like all political communications, we need to advance understanding of the opposing side, including clear presentations of what we believe is morally lacking in the arguments for a health care system based upon private, profit-first insurance. Accurate negative information of this sort is important, but it is not sufficient to the successful completion of the progressive campaign for health care security.
• We will also recommend positive and understandable communications about ways we can take responsibility for our own health and the health of others.
• Once again, we are telling a story. We cannot and should not attempt to tell it all at once. Elements of this campaign will advance the story, not definitively conclude it. Keep a look out for each stage of the campaign as it unfolds.

Thank you for joining us in this enterprise.