Commonweal Institute Blog

Welcome to the Commonweal Institute’s new blog. We hope it will stimulate discussion about how to market progressive ideas, what progressive values are, and how progressives can work together more effectively. We also want to discuss building a political infrastructure that can keep working to advance progressive perspectives all the time, not just during election seasons, and not just limited to specific issues.

To give you a little background, my late husband Leonard Salle and I started the Commonweal Institute in 2001, in the wake of the 2000 election and its messy aftermath. We were motivated by our recognition that progressive voices and perspectives were being drowned out in the public arena, thanks to the well-organized conservative movement that had evolved over decades. The public, the media, and politicians (regardless of party) were accepting as credible many ultra-conservative ideas and actions that previously would have been unthinkable. There was little visible resistance to what we saw as a reversal of much of the progress that America had made in the 20th century. We decided it was time for progressives to get their collective act together.

Based on our analysis of what had made the Right successful, plus our awareness of the differences between progressives and conservatives, all of us at Commonweal agree that the Institute should not be just a traditional think tank. Instead, it should be a multi-issue organization that develops and promotes ideas, strategic thinking, and techniques for action. We’ve been doing this through research, advocacy, training, and strategic consultation to other organizations. In March of 2006, the Commonweal Institute sponsored the first Progressive Roundtable, as a step toward building coordinated political infrastructure.

The Common Good. There has been a lot of buzz around this phrase the “common good” ever since President Bill Clinton’s speech in Georgetown last week. President Clinton laid out an alternative philosophy for progressives around this notion of the common good. Well we’re thrilled! Since the Commonweal Institute was founded in 2001, our raison d’etre (as well as our tagline) has been “advancing ideas for the common good.”

Could this simple notion be the string theory of progressivism – the unifying equation that holds us all together? As we know that devices such as alliteration and repetition help ideas to become “sticky” (in Malcolm Gladwell’s words), I would add common good…common ground…commonsense.

More on the common good (and Commonweal) coming soon...

A CNN poll this week shows that, as CNN worded it,

"...most Americans still agree with the bedrock conservative premise that, as the Gipper put it, "government is not the answer to our problems -- government is the problem."

"Queried about their views on the role of government, 54 percent of the 1,013 adults polled said they thought it was trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. Only 37 percent said they thought the government should do more to solve the country's problems."

You might have heard that progressive organizations are starved for funds, while the hundreds of right-wing organizations like The Heritage Foundation that pound us with the right-wing message every day are all flush with corporate and wealthy-donor money. You might have heard that people who work for right-wing organizations are well-paid, well-trained and have access to the latest technology and resources, while people who fight for OUR values have to work for a pittance and barely get by, use ancient technology, etc.

It's true. Progressive organizations ARE starved for funds, and as a result many of them primarily reach out to their membership lists - to appeal for funds - instead of reaching out to the public to broaden the progressive base. Meanwhile the conservative organizations are always out there making the case for conservative ideology and candidates. So the public - and resulting government policy - understandably leans right.

Because of this lack of funds many progressive organizations depend on a select few donors and have to be cautiously "centrist," moderating their message and mission rather than risk giving offense by reaching out with a message that would resonate with more people - and grow the base.

Here's a thought. If everyone who reads DailyKos, Huffington Post, Eschaton, Common Dreams, AlterNet, BuzzFlash, Smirking Chimp and all the other online progressive sites and blogs each gave at least $100 to a progressive organization - ANY progressive organization - it would end the dominance of the corporations and the conservative movement once and for all. There would be enough money for good jobs and internships for anyone interested in working to support progressive activities and candidates and policies.

Every time you turn on the radio or a cable news show you hear one form or another of the same old message, “conservatives and their ideas are good and liberals and their ideas are bad.” Think about how often you hear one or another variation of that theme.

But how often do you hear that liberals and progressives are good? How often do you hear that liberal/progressive ideas are better for people than a conservative approach? And if you are reading this you're looking for progressive ideas. So how often do you think the general public is hearing that progressives and their values and ideas are good?

The public does not hear our side of the story very often – if ever.

Why is that? Maybe it’s because we aren’t telling people our side of the story!

There are literally hundreds of conservative organizations that primarily exist to persuade the public to support conservative ideas (and, therefore, conservative candidates.) The people you see on TV or hear on the radio or who write op-eds in newspapers are paid by, or at the very least draw upon resources provided by these organizations. You might or might not have heard of the Heritage Foundation or the Cato Institute or Americans for Tax Reform or the This Institute or the That Foundation or the Government-and-Taxes-Are-Bad Association – but there really is a network of well-funded conservative organizations marketing the conservatives-are-good-and-liberals-and-government-and-democracy-are-bad propaganda every hour of every day and they have been doing so for decades.

Click this link to visit a collection of links to articles, studies, reports and other resources for learning about the right-wing movement, its history, how it is funded and how it operates.

Now, can you think of any organizations that exist to tell the public that progressive values and ideas and policies and candidates are good? Do you know about any organized effort to persuade people to support progressive values and ideas?