Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Multiple-Issue Strategic Initiatives: is a plan in which a change in one carefully chosen area has dramatic and far-reaching effects in many, many other issue areas. Currently, most progressive groups focus on a single-issue area, forwarding separate goals with tactical approaches that tend to be short-term, single impact, and program based. This approach can be expanded to be truly strategic so that a range of single issues can fit within a broader overall movement that shares visionary, far-reaching, and long-term goals.

The idea is to look at a single issue and craft it as a door-opening proposal that leads to bigger and bigger effects. Short-term tactical goals then automatically advance long-term goals. The key is for a single initiative to be concrete, cumulative, coordinated, and create coalitions across groups.

A well-chosen Multiple Issue Strategic Initiative naturally builds coalitions, and helps to build a long-range progressive values movement. Different groups who have experience and expertise in many issue areas can then work within a Big Picture to achieve goals that extend well beyond a single program or issue area. By operating with a shared long-term vision that elevates progressive values, different groups can create a strong foundation for ongoing cooperation, collaboration and coordination.

A Multiple Issue Strategic Initiative has five elements:

1. impacts across issues, constituencies and geography,

2. elevates powerful connective frames,

3. creates new alliances and new political possibilities,

4. divides and puts opponents on the defensive, and;

5. is solution-oriented.

Slippery Slope Initiatives: is so called because the first step is intended to be only part of what you want, but is a step that opens the door to further steps on the way to your ultimate goal. This works by making the first step on the slippery slope so attractive or palatable that traditional opponents have a hard time countering it.

For instance, the issue and ideas behind a Slippery Slope Strategic Initiative are presented in such a way that you put your opponents on the defensive, placing them in a difficult spot, and making it more likely that you will succeed. Critically, the first step puts a new frame in place. Once the first step is accomplished, the next step is easier because the new frame can be elaborated once it is in place. Using the same reasoning, you continue down the slope step by step, gaining momentum toward your final goal.

Both introduce wedge issues to divide opponents and make it easier to accomplish ambitious, long-term goals. Such initiatives may at first seem innocuous or limited in scope but are in fact far-reaching Strategic Initiatives. By recognizing such initiatives at their inception, progressives can more effectively join together to oppose them. At the same time, by understanding how to turn a single initiative into a Strategic Initiative, progressives can more successfully advance their own policy agenda and put conservatives on the defensive.

An important feature of both a Multiple Issue and a Slippery Slope Strategic Initiative is that they divide your opponents by operating as wedge issues -- each drives a wedge between members of your opponent's usual coalitions.

For example, conservatives are using the "Partial Birth Abortion" initiative to drive a wedge between progressives, splitting off the support of Catholics, who traditionally oppose abortion but who also tend to favor progressive policies for the poor, from other progressives who generally support women's reproductive freedom.

And, "Partial Birth Abortion" is a first step down the slippery slope to end abortion entirely. In this case, no misleading is needed since an end to all abortions is the direct, stated goal of its proponents. The procedure is so rare that hardly any are needed (and if needed, it is a crucial medical intervention to save the life or health of a pregnant woman). Conservatives are, therefore, not likely supporting it to "save lives," but intend it as a strategic first step to attack women's reproductive freedoms generally. The emotionally laden term forwards a new framing that demonizes abortion providers in order to make the public and policy makers more sympathetic to further attacks on reproductive freedoms. This keeps abortion rights proponents on the defensive so that they have no time or resources to advance an alternative agenda.

Wedge issues also carry an important feature that helps to uncover hidden goals and intentions of their proponents, if they are not obvious at first: wedge issues stand in for the whole of a moral system. In the case of abortion, conservatives seek to impose Strict Father Morality on society in general by asserting greater control over women's lives. They view this as a part of preserving the natural moral order of things, which includes accepting a moral hierarchy that places men in a higher position than women and gives men control over women's lives -- husbands over wives, fathers over daughters. In addition, in this view an unwanted pregnancy typically results from irresponsible or immoral behavior outside the supervision of a male protector, and therefore must be punished accordingly. Women must not avoid responsibility for their actions by being able to end an unwanted pregnancy. This aspect of conservative morality is often reinforced by religious values that support the role of punishment and discipline to promote moral behavior. For many conservatives, there is also a religious element in valuing the life of an "innocent" child over the well-being of a woman seen as straying, yet who still has the potential for moral redemption through proper discipline.

EXAMPLE of a progressive Strategic Initiative:

The best example of a new Multiple Issue Strategic Initiative by progressives could be called "New Energy for America." New Energy for America is based on the work of the New Apollo Project that proposes to spend $30 billion a year for ten years to develop alternative and sustainable energy sources. The single issue area for the key proposal is increasing alternative energy investment, but the effects are far-ranging, span multiple issue areas, creates new alliances, and leads to a long-term, visionary solution: a clean energy economy.

From 'New Energy for America, we have the following:

Multiple Impacts: With a single initiative focused in one area, New Energy for America is so much more than an "energy bill":

* It is about jobs -- creating millions of new, high-wage jobs, reinvigorating the American industrial sector, and the industrial unions.

* It is a health initiative: alternative energy means less air pollution, alleviating health problems like childhood asthma, and lung cancer.

* It is an environmental issue: more clean water and clean air by reducing or eliminating the entire chain of environmental degradation associated with dependence on fossil fuel -- from extraction, to transport, to refining oil, to burning coal.

* It protects species and wildlife by cleaning up the environment and preserving natural habitats.

* It is a global warming initiative, lowering greenhouse gases -- a bonus since there is no need to enact a separate proposal.

* It is a foreign policy issue, ending our reliance on Middle Eastern oil.

It is a development policy, offering a way for less developed economies to provide for their energy needs in healthy, sustainable ways, and to become energy producers rather than oil consumers.

Elevates Frames: The frames, or concepts, used to talk about New Energy for America include ideas such as the following:

*Another way is possible, and we have it within our power to choose that way. Frames: possibilities and choices.

Aim American ingenuity and resourcefulness at a problem, no matter how big, and watch out. We're going to solve it, and consistent with our true national character, we're going to share what we know to make things better for everybody. Frames: American ingenuity and problem solving.

* This is the country that put a man on the moon, that defeated fascism and put the world back on its feet, that invented the light bulb, telephone, TV, interstate and internet. Frames: American ingenuity and pride.

* Acting together, we can do anything. Frames: unlimited possibility and success.

New Alliances and Possibilities: The Apollo Alliance is building a coalition of partners across issue areas and regions of the country, and among diverse constituencies, to work toward clean energy and good jobs. Groups in the Alliance include seventeen national unions representing over 10 million workers, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace USA, the National Resource Defense Council, the National Wildlife Federation, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Republicans for Environmental Protection, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, and many more. Together, this coalition has the potential to create an entire movement dedicated to creating a clean-energy-based economy.

Divided, Defensive Opponents: New Energy for America is about hope in a political environment characterized by fear and division. This big, bold, inspiring initiative connects groups working together on individual issues, and forwards new ideas about how to solve problems that relate to jobs, the economy, the environment, national and international security, foreign affairs, third world development, and community health. New Energy for America thus has the potential to draw support among many business sectors, populist-conservative politicians, and rural white communities since its appeal to good American jobs, energy independence, and American pride and ingenuity is something many conservatives would support. If done well, this would split the traditional conservative base to win support for a progressive strategic initiative.

Solution Oriented: New Energy for America is so clearly superior for the vast majority of people that the solution practically speaks for itself -- the language used to talk about a clean energy economy naturally forwards a progressive vision. Handled well, speaking about the solution means there is no need for a direct critique of the fossil-fuel economy and its proponents (and thus it is less likely that you inadvertently step into their frames and hurt your efforts).

Examples of Strategic Initiatives on the Right:

Tort Reform is an example of an indirect, misleading type of Multiple Issue Strategic Initiative -- indirect because the stated reason for the initiative is not the only goal, or even the most important one. For instance, supporters say they want "tort reform" to cap awards to prevent "frivolous lawsuits", but what they really care most about is other effects that follow from this: to allow corporations to weaken public protection laws which guard the public's health and safety, to weaken environmental regulations that restrict their business operations, and to eliminate an important fund-raising base for Democratic candidates by limiting the income of public protection attorneys who overwhelmingly donate to Democratic candidates. Although "frivolous lawsuits" is the catchphrase, it's about many other goals that go unstated in the public debate.

Tax cuts are another misleading Multiple Issue Strategic Initiative on the right. Tax cuts may seem straightforward and self-explanatory, but by intentionally creating long-term deficits, the important strategic right wing goal is to make sure there will not be enough money to pay for government programs such as education, environmental protections, or social programs that ensure the welfare of people. These are programs that conservatives object to strongly. It is important to realize that most conservatives are not simply against spending money on the government -- they spend quite freely on corporate subsidy payments, prison systems and the military -- but they prefer to spend on programs they view as moral. Conservatives used to try to get rid of social programs one at a time. Now the goal is to get rid of all social programs at once, using tax cuts as an intentional way to de-fund the part of government conservatives do not like and find immoral. It is this all-at-once character that makes the tax cuts a strategic initiative.

What Can Progressives Do? Craft Our Own Slippery Slope and Wedge Issues.

Clean air and clean water can be made into an effective wedge issue since this is something that many conservatives also value deeply. Progressives could campaign for poison-free communities by focusing on how mercury poisons the air we breathe, and the water we drink and fish in. As a wedge issue, it would split off conservatives who care about their own health and their children's health from those who oppose government regulations generally - the issue divides the traditional conservative coalition. Successfully framing the issue as one in which regulation promotes health would put opponents on the defensive, putting them in the untenable and awkward position of opposing health if they opposed regulation.

This would also serve as a Slippery Slope Strategic Initiative. If people start to look at what creates mercury in the environment, such as coal plants and chemical plants, then the next step is to remove these sources of mercury in the environment, preventing making more of it, and cleaning it up. If the new frame is to remove poisons with regulation that promotes health, then a natural next step is to think about how other chemicals affect us, how we can prevent them from being created, and get them cleaned up too. Continuing in this way, a range of poisons and pollutants can be incorporated in additional steps to reach the ultimate goal of a cleaner and healthier environment for ourselves and our children.

Creating a Strategic Initiative

Thinking about how a single issue can be crafted into a Strategic Initiative has the potential to connect you and your organization to a wider group of people working on progressive goals. This is not always an easy thing to do. One of the main reasons why this is difficult is that progressives tend to think in terms of programs, and have structured their organizations and their efforts around promoting certain programs over others. This leads to many areas where progressives can disagree with each other over policy details or methods.

For instance, there may be genuine disagreements between groups working on similar issues arising from differences in degrees of experience and expertise. There may also be disagreement about whether an approach to a new initiative should be more idealistic or pragmatic, advocate radical or moderate change, employ militant or moderate tactics, or focus on a more local, regional or national scale. There are also many types of progressives who will generally think differently about the same issue area -- they are broadly distinguishable as socioeconomic, identity politics--oriented, environmentalist, civil libertarian, spiritual, or anti-authoritarian progressives.

Progressives can overcome these common differences by emphasizing their shared values in order to create and maintain the broadest level of cooperation and mutual support. Highlighting broad principles to guide policy directions can alleviate tensions arising from differences based on policy -- even those who may disagree on the details of particular programs can still agree on an overall direction.

To rise above the divisions created by differences on policy details, methods, and political identities, an effective technique is to strongly link a Strategic Initiative to its higher-level values, principles, and policy directions.

1. Values of Empathy and Responsibility are first-order values that flow from a progressive vision. Second-order values include Strength, Safety and Protection, Fulfillment in life, and Fairness, among many others.

2. Principles realize progressive values. Important progressive principles include Equity, Equality, Democracy, and Government for a Better Future.

3. Policy Directions should be designed to fit easily with values and principles. The following are some examples of how progressive policy directions relate to values and principles:

* A policy direction is an economy that creates millions of new jobs through innovation. The main principle is a Government for a Better Future, and this realizes the second-order progressive values of Fairness and Opportunity.

* Another policy direction is security for Americans achieved through a wise foreign policy centered on strong diplomatic alliances, and cooperative relationships with other nations. This incorporates the principles of a values-based foreign policy -- the first-order value is Responsibility. Key second-order values are Strength, and Safety and Protection.

* An important policy direction for progressives is equal rights for all people in every area of life. Equity and Equality are the main principles that realize the second-order progressive values of Fairness and Freedom.

The key to creating and maintaining a cooperative collaboration is to ensure that the main proposal fits with first-order values and resonates with as many second-order values as possible to draw the support and commitment of many potential partners. The progressive principles emphasized must be able to realize these values and fit well within a broad policy direction.

When thinking about how an individual policy or program fits within the Big Picture, keep in mind how it forwards the overall goal and helps progressives generally. At times, it may be necessary to forsake an immediate short-term victory for a particular group in order to realize long-term successes for the entire coalition. And any proposed changes or compromises made along the way should remain consistent with the far-reaching goals of the chosen Strategic Initiative.

Answering the following questions can help pinpoint specific ways a single issue can be turned into a Strategic Initiative:

1. What will be the effects of our proposal in 5, 10, 20 years?

2. If we make this proposal, what other issue areas are affected?

3. Who will be our new partners?

4. How might our new coalition partners require us to change?

For instance, environmental groups working with labor on an initiative like New Energy for America may require a shift in thinking about the nature of jobs and employment to successfully support and advance a Strategic Initiative together. Finding common values and focusing on a unifying policy direction has the potential to overcome traditional areas of disagreement and create an atmosphere that is more cooperative and collaborative.

5. Who will no longer be our opponents?

6. Who will become our new opponents?

It's clear that it is important to anticipate political obstacles, and be ready with a response that, ideally, is both tactical and strategic. Elevating new frames that resonate with first-order values can maintain momentum with new coalition partners and, if done well, blunt the efforts of new political opponents. It's important to spend time working out the new frames so that they connect to a long-term policy agenda. Be ready to counter opponents -- know who they are or are likely to be, how they think, what they value, what are their goals, and what will be their likely strategies.

Introducing and Supporting a Strategic Initiative

Prepare a comprehensive Communication Campaign. The scope of a communication campaign extends well beyond merely a communications strategy or a "media rollout." The language supporting a far-reaching Strategic Initiative is crucial for long run success, and each stage of the communications campaign must be mapped out and planned well in advance. Those who fund media and communications work should be aware that success will depend on guaranteed sources of funding over many years for members of coalitions working together on Strategic Initiatives.

For coalition members, a key part of a successful communications campaign is message unity and discipline. Achieving a message that all groups can agree upon may require some additional work, but it is well worth the additional time and investment. In order to maintain the broadest coalition over many years while recognizing that many of the groups will have expertise and experience in many different issue areas, the most successful language is likely to reflect a larger shared vision and resonate with first-order progressive values. This has the greatest chance to enlist many different groups and maintain cooperation and a sense of shared purpose over time.

• Framing: Primer for a Progressive Revolution
  
  
• Framing: Main Page
  
• Part I -- Philosophy and Rational for Framing
  
• Part II -- The Nurturant Parent Vs. the Strict Father
  
• Part III -- Techniques, Rules, and Execution
  
• Part IV -- Strategic and Slippery Slope Inititiatives
  
• Part V -- Implementation: Respond with 'Value-Based' Answers