Progressive "Think Tank" & strategy center

[ClearMessage]

I followed a discussion on the importance of organizing a liberal think tank where we can develop ideas, arguments, language, etc.

That's what I had in mind when I recently created: clearmessage.org

The idea is to have an evolving archive of progressive-minded articles in several formats. Articles can be posted by users on a variety of topics, and then rated & discussed by other members. The favorite articles & ideas could then be entered in democratic encyclopedias such as Demopedia or dKosopedia.

The main goal that I'm hoping to archive is to provide a place for progressive to pitch ideas for catch-phrases, debate and fine-tune those "killer" sayings that can be used to frame ourselves and our opponents. The republicans have been excellent in doing that... look how much mileage they got out of the baseless "tax and spend democrats".

Another goal is to create an archive where democrats and go and quickly find articles promoting liberal viewpoints or debunking republican viewings on many topics.

Articles in clearmessage.org can be categories into several categories.

Perhaps the most important is Catchphrases where we will develop slogans & saying that will help frame issues on our terms.

Another category is for long essays from a progressive stand-point.

Two categories, Anti-Right & Pro-left are for short/medium length arguments to counter right-wing propaganda, and promote progressive viewpoints.

The last one is Graphs & Charts that use statistics to clearly show the positive effects of democratic policies, and negative effects of republican policies.

This site is rather new, and not very active yet. I'm still adding features and customizing it as time permits.

What do you think?

[art3]

1. Love it

I love it. count me in. email me
art

[ClearMessage]

7. hi art

Apparently, I don't have enough posts to send private messages...

There's a way to send private emails via clearmessage, so if you sign-up, just shoot over a line to "ClearMsg", or email [e-mail]

[Crunchy Frog]

2. That looks like a very nice site.

I've bookmarked it and maybe will even contribute at some point if I get the nerve up. (I'm always shy about posting in new places.)

Welcome to DU by the way.

[ClearMessage]

5. thanks,

Crunchy.

Please don't be shy... the whole point is to have members contribute, discuss, fine-tune, etc. As long as people are respectful, there should be no problem commenting on, and critiquing ideas.

We're all in it for the same reasons: to help our cause, to help the democratic party find a voice & sharpen our arguments & message.

[Tinoire]

3. Very, very nice!

Welcome to DU :toast:

If people don't swarm, please don't give up or take it personally. To ber very blunt, it will be because we don't know you. But with an idea like that, I really encourage you to stick around, post a bit so that people can see who you are and what you believe in. Put that link in your signature line and that will help attract people.

Truly- very nice! I've book-marked it.

[ClearMessage]

6. thanks!

I kinda figured that there's natural suspicion here toward "newbies". I guess that's to be expected in a popular site like this; I'm sure you had your share of trolls.

But clearmessage isn't really about me. I kinda had to get the ball rolling by posting the first articles, but I don't consider it "my blog" or anything like that. My hope is to have it become an active community where most contributions & comments come from other members. I was not looking for a platform for myself, but rather a location where others can contribute their material in a sort-of an "evolving liberal archive", if that makes sense.

Having said all that, you could probably get some idea on my beliefs by reading the articles I posted on my site (under the name ClearMsg), and the few I posted here.

Thanks for the kind words. I do plan to stick around :)

[Tinoire]

8. Anytime

and yes there is a natural suspicion lol... You can imagine how Rove would LOVE to have a honeypot site where he could get us all to register ;) Your sight doesn't smell like that though.

I'll stop by but not tonight. Peace

& on edit: Good luck with it. It's much needed!

[Raiden]

4. Welcome to DU!

Just bookmarked. It looks like a great site.

[Pushed To The Left]

9. Looks like a great website!

[0rganism]

10. You might want to pay a visit to conceptualguerilla, too

Check out http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/beattherightinthree.htm for example.

This guy has his head on straight, his ideas could really help.

[Pushed To The Left]

11. I like that one!

Cheap labor conservatives. We need to get that phrase out there!

[Buddyblazon]

28. I've been using "cheap-labor conservative" for a couple of months now...

I read it somewhere on the internet. May have been that site. But it's important to know what it means. The whole idea of keeping people over a barrel through low wages...it pretty much sums up neo-cons.

I've got one of my friends saying it. Shit...we need a bumbersticker...a freeway blog...a billboard.

Cheap labor conservative. It just sounds wretched...don't it?

[ClearMessage]

29. this is great!

Needs to get out there. I posted it on the front page on my site.

[calimary]

12. Great minds... Have you seen the "Frame the Debate" group here?

It's one of the forums. EXCELLENT discussion and ideas being kicked around in there. HIGHLY recommended. We can use all the creativity and expertise we can get, including YOURS.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=252

Excellent work, by the way. Everyone we know, of like mind, needs to start thinking along these lines immediately. This is Priority One.

BTW - Welcome to DU!

[ClearMessage]

17. I didn't know about "Frame the Debate" before,

but I checked it out and I like it. I strongly believe that we are really lacking when it comes to developing "our" language as compared to the republicans, and anything that we can do as a community to help the democratic party find it's voice is crucial.

The republicans are not getting support because people believe in their ideas. They get support because their ideas *sound* good for those that aren't willing to research the issues on their own.

We need to learn how to sell our ideas to the masses.

The only problem I see with Frame the Debate group is that there are lots of a gems hidden deep in the threads. You can't for example search for all catchphrases to frame the topic of Education. There needs to be some system to allow the best ideas to bubble up to the top so that the community can easily find them, embrace them, and use them repeatedly in blogs, emails, letters to editors and conversations with acquaintances, until they become part of our everyday language.

[Rockerdem]

20. Be very skeptical about anybody claiming to "Frame" issues

on a wholesale basis. Its another code word for not being straight with the average American, and using hidden or subliminal mind-control techniques on the unaware. Its the playpen of manipulators. Just because Rove has had a success or two doesnt mean that we should stoop to his perverse methods.

Communicating with the working classed requires simplicity above all other aspects. And honesty goes hand in hand with simplicity. Its always tempting to take shortcuts that feature style over substance. Embracing them is a partial admission of fundamental problems with your goals.

[ClearMessage]

21. I partially agree.

You make good points. It's sad that politics have come to this, but if we want to win, we have to play this game.

Framing, the way republicans use it, is manipulative and deceitful. They have no choice, if they were upfront about their ideas, people would run away.

One of my favorite examples to illustrate my point is "tax and spend democrats". The republicans repeated it a million times in the last 20-30 years with great discipline, and people are buying it. The average voter associates democrats with excessive taxes & spending, eventhough there's no basis for it in reality. Is it fair? No. Is it accurate? No. Does it win elections? Yes.

We, however, CAN be honest when framing our ideas & values accurately. I was never suggesting that we be manipulative or dishonest.

The republicans are winning the framing war at the moment, and if we don't respond with our own language, we will keep losing the debates to their inferior ideas before the debates even start.

[TWiley]

13. How is this different than DU?

The following is already here. Why not try to incorporate these ideas here rather than attempting to divert patronage to another site?

I have always been leary of anything that tries to attach itself to, or "marry into" a naturally occurring movement.

The FBI effectively did this with Gloria Stienem and the Womens movement. Read the encyclopedia Britannica year books from 1967 to 1972 to find documentation concerning Gloria's background as an FBI operative who "infiltrated" the radical "red stockings" feminist group. She did another FBI chore by posing as a playboy bunny in Chicago. Ever wonder why a non participant like Steinem was catapulted to a position ahead of the other contenders by the media?

I appreciate your dedication and efforts. I have just seen too many cases of Conservatives hijacking movements, institutions, and even phrases to feel comfortable with the proselytizing aspect of your proposal.

[ClearMessage]

14. the difference is

that the clearmessage is narrowly focused on the goal of creating an archive of essays, arguments & debating catchphrases for democrats. There's less volume, and it's not meant for discussion of news or socializing.

I don't see it as competing with DU or trying to divert patronage. It's a different site, with a different purpose. No one is going to stop coming to DU because they're active on CM.

Having said all that, the frame the debate group here looks excellent.

[TWiley]

15. Thank you for clarifying this.

It would be great to have a spot to get concise information on a topic. That resource was sorely lacking during the campaign. It was way to difficult to get information about the swift liars issue, as it was to find the true perspective on Kerry's Senate attendance.

The DLC did a mighty shitty job of propagating information. The only e-mails and postal mail I can remember getting were the constant appeals for money.

[0rganism]

16. Strangely enough, I would prefer numerous independent efforts

It's too easy to infiltrate and paralyze a monolithic organization. DU, for all its chocolately goodness, risks becoming such a monolith. The larger we are, the more disruptors and moles we attract. I look at older forums like indymedia.org and see that their extended legacy is the very thing that makes them so vulnerable.

The rightwing excels at undermining and crushing unified effort. The prime example? American labor unions. Sixty years ago, the unions were strong and influential. Now they are weak and ineffective, despised and disparaged by capitalist and worker alike. The Black Panthers and Earth First have also fallen victim to the heightened profiles created by their own strength. Call it "catastrophic success" if you like. :P MoveOn is already a significant target, and DU is gradually gaining in prominence. How long will it be before organizing anything through DU becomes effectively impossible?

What the rightwingers have not -- and, by their nature, probably will not -- be able to disrupt are loosely-organized massively-parallel structures. There is strength in numbers, but as those numbers coalesce into discernable units they become increasingly vulnerable. Only by adopting massively-parallel counter-activism can the rightwing succeed in snuffing out massively-independent dissent, yet to do this requires deviation from their lockstep pattern of attack, and leaving their authority figures behind. In doing so they effectively become radicals, in method if not in content. And once radicalized, their message must stand on its own, independent of the messenger.

When that happens, they will fail, because the entire basis of the personality cult is charismatic leadership. Theirs is a fundamentally bankrupt ideology, that succeeds only through charismatic presentation or constant repetition. In the absence of both, their xenophobia will surely atrophy.

Paradoxically, sites like freeperville and CU are hindrances to the "conservative" cause, and their participants are too stupid to see it.

Populism fails when vertical growth alienates the people it represents. Authoritarianism fails when factional differences undercut the personage it glorifies.

[TWiley]

22. Bush Republicans have contempt for the weak.

They rob the weak and give to the rich. I do not understand our future in terms of loosely organized weakness.

It is true that the more powerful the organization, the greater target it becomes. This is the liability. The problem to be solved is how can weakness be organized to produce strength without some centralized leadership to avoid that liability. I am not sure it can be done.

Republicans strategy is also to slaughter a Giant, and to make it a group of weak factions. Consider their war against the Democratic party.

It began with powerful conservatives. Next came talk radio used to get the lies out. The crucifixion of Mr. Clinton for "Moral Turpitude" was the first result and it effectively cut the head off the Democratic Party. We were leaderless and fractioned going into the 2000 election.

We were too weak to stop the theft of the white house in 2000. We were too weak to stop the incredible series of crises created by bush as each democratic institution was attacked after another. The bums rush for the nations wealth and power was on.

The desires of the Democratic party have no effect on the republican leadership. They steamroll legislation, and lock Democratic leaders out of legislative process. This is the effect of weakness as dissension and morality dies at the feet of odious leadership.

The only stabilizing force opposed to the bush family today is not a single powerful nation. It is a growing coalition of powerful nations united in their opposition of bush policy. Certainly the EU can be counted as part of this force, and soon I expect to see more cooperation between the EU, Russia, and China to offset the abusive use of unbalanced power in this world.

We must cultivate multiple powerful organizations united by principles, consistent in message, and dedicated to a collective effort to first remove the bush family from power,to document the atrocities committed by this family, the justification of this immorality by the Conservative Christian Community, and the restoration of this nations power into the hands of sane, tolerant, and intelligent people of all cultures.

To retreat into weakness is not the "next" right thing to do.

[0rganism]

23. Yes, that's the basis of their ideology, and it's also their weakness

Seems paradoxical, eh? Weakness is relative. Way I see it, the republicans have developed the destruction of towering monolithic organizations into a fine art. If any one liberal front becomes too well-developed, the republicans know exactly how to move in to destroy it. What we need is parallelism and simultanaeity, not just a weak multiplicity. I think we agree on this much. The main thrust of my idea is, all our many organizations must be of similar strength so no single structure stands out as the pivotal one, even on a single particular issue. There should be no fixed central structure upon which everything else depends.

We need to become so many functional, active groups that we become like a swarm of wasps. Swat one away? Who cares, there are three more like it already taking its place. The more multifunctional each group is, the better -- i.e., environmental advocacy groups should become capable of engaging on women's rights and world peace and organized labor issues, relating them all together. This is easy, we are united at heart by common compatible values, each shared by majorities in this nation; there are environmental reasons to support unions, labor organizers have a direct interest in women's rights, etcetera. When coalitions between groups form to accomplish a larger goal, like a peace march or abortion rights rally, they should be temporary-by-design and -- ideally -- have completely different leadership in each incarnation. Never give the rightwing a sitting target to attack; respect their strength, they excel at demolishing static structures.

This has to hard boot from the ground up, through educated & competent localism. Political targets are school boards, city councils, municipal judgeships, mayors. Activism centers around education overcoming apathy and exposing the incoherence of the republican ideology.

The republicans have a strong movement that should never be underestimated. But it is exactly the kind of artificial structure they are so good at smacking down themselves. They are large organizations with few commonalities; the mega-churches have no direct interest in war profiteering, the isolationists and racists share no affection with the cheap-labor importers and outsourcers, the health insurance industry has no love for industrial polluters, and so on. The more these dissonant relationships can be strained, the more punches we land against the behemoth.

Forty years ago, the republicans were where we are today. If we use the next three years correctly, as they did after the Goldwater defeat, we will begin to see results in 2008 and by 2020 we'll be calling the shots.

[jojo54]

18. But what about Bush's AWOL and

Cheney's ties to Enron, Halliburton, etc? The Dems came out with these full-force, but no one listened. Or at least, didn't listen enough.

Is it just that the Dems aren't "dirty" enough?

[ClearMessage]

19. that's not enough

You can use attack politics only so far. You also need to sell your ideas to the masses.

Besides, the Rove machine did a pretty good job deflecting these attacks. Ultimately, people vote for the person that excites them the most and can speak their language.

Clinton for example, had many skeletons in his closet in 1992, but he knew how to connect with people and appeal to them, and that neutralized the republican attacks.

[PopulistDemocrat]

24. Here's an idea: adopt a universal anti-NAFTA position

and start winning elections again.

[LisaLL]

25. Rockridge Institute

If you haven't already read it---you would love "Don't think of an elephant" by George Lakoff. All about framing our politics in values terms. The Rockridge Institute website has essays posted. Good luck to you!

[ClearMessage]

26. great article

The article you mentioned should be read by every democrat.

It's part of what inspired me to create clearmessage.

[LisaLL]

27. inspiration

Me too. (Currently reading "Moral Politics" by Lakoff). I really think that's what we need to do.

My spouse and I are also working on a website to assist in speaking in terms of progressive values. We're also teaching our kids. We point out the progressive values to our kids all the time. "We value effective probelm solving--and that's a progressive value." "We feel it's important to help others---and that's a progressive value." The kids really get it!