Project: Progressive Infrastructure
Design a comprehensive strategy of policy, positioning, and infrastructure to further progressive principles
Background: I wish to build an educated stance on how to translate the unifying principles of the progressive movement into policy, message, and delivery.
My first focus is policy development, with an emphasis on national policy. While there are many hot-button, wedge issues that are frequently used to define party affiliation, the most difficult policy questions lie elsewhere. What about health care, social security, and other issues that will change dramatically as life expectancies continue to increase? What about federal funding of education? What about agriculture policy?? I'd like to get a group of people together to do the following: enumerate the policy issues a national politician should have an informed opinion on. Prioritize. Tackle each issue in turn, becoming informed (at a high level) of the current policy positions. At that point we can map out our own, consistent with progressive principles. (This would be like a national policy reading and discussion group.)
Then there is the question of how to market the ideas. Most issues are multifaceted. In my opinion, the policies that seek to address them should reflect these complexities. Unfortunately, this doesn't translate into an effective strategy for message creation or delivery. And, to me, this is the heart of the problem: how do you sell a complex idea in an era of 30-second sound bites, especially when the opposition's ideas so easily fit in the 30-second format? Using progressive frames is just one piece of the puzzle.
Status: Working on public policy in Washington, D.C. during the new Obama Administration has more than exposed me to a good number of these issues. In the past, I explored and developed marketing techniques first hand at the grassroots level through my various leadership roles in the Obama campaign: first as Info Committee Co-Chair of East Bay for Obama, then facilitating at Camp Obama SF, later leading intra-group and inter-group communication across Northern California, and eventually field organizing in Colorado.
Related Projects:
Media - source of news
Speeches - policy makers and analysts talking
Religions - significant in a majority of Americans' lives
Communication - message creation and delivery
International Trade & Policy - interconnected with domestic policy
Leadership & Management - organization
Political Philosophy - the foundation of the policy
Background: I wish to build an educated stance on how to translate the unifying principles of the progressive movement into policy, message, and delivery.
My first focus is policy development, with an emphasis on national policy. While there are many hot-button, wedge issues that are frequently used to define party affiliation, the most difficult policy questions lie elsewhere. What about health care, social security, and other issues that will change dramatically as life expectancies continue to increase? What about federal funding of education? What about agriculture policy?? I'd like to get a group of people together to do the following: enumerate the policy issues a national politician should have an informed opinion on. Prioritize. Tackle each issue in turn, becoming informed (at a high level) of the current policy positions. At that point we can map out our own, consistent with progressive principles. (This would be like a national policy reading and discussion group.)
Then there is the question of how to market the ideas. Most issues are multifaceted. In my opinion, the policies that seek to address them should reflect these complexities. Unfortunately, this doesn't translate into an effective strategy for message creation or delivery. And, to me, this is the heart of the problem: how do you sell a complex idea in an era of 30-second sound bites, especially when the opposition's ideas so easily fit in the 30-second format? Using progressive frames is just one piece of the puzzle.
Status: Working on public policy in Washington, D.C. during the new Obama Administration has more than exposed me to a good number of these issues. In the past, I explored and developed marketing techniques first hand at the grassroots level through my various leadership roles in the Obama campaign: first as Info Committee Co-Chair of East Bay for Obama, then facilitating at Camp Obama SF, later leading intra-group and inter-group communication across Northern California, and eventually field organizing in Colorado.
Related Projects:
Media - source of news
Speeches - policy makers and analysts talking
Religions - significant in a majority of Americans' lives
Communication - message creation and delivery
International Trade & Policy - interconnected with domestic policy
Leadership & Management - organization
Political Philosophy - the foundation of the policy
First Published: 8/1/2005; Status Update: 6/1/2010