Articles below by Drew Westen are collected here.
Articles on this page are arranged with the most recent at the top, by publication date. However, articles that are added to this page much later than their publication date (so are not at the top) are marked NEW! so that they may be spotted easily.
[Below] "They will blame James Comey and the FBI. They will blame voter suppression and racism. They will blame Bernie or bust and misogyny. They will blame third parties and independent candidates. They will blame the corporate media for giving him the platform, social media for being a bullhorn, and WikiLeaks for airing the laundry.
"But this leaves out the force most responsible for creating the nightmare in which we now find ourselves wide awake: neoliberalism....
"Here is what we need to understand: a hell of a lot of people are in pain. Under neoliberal policies of deregulation, privatisation, austerity and corporate trade, their living standards have declined precipitously. They have lost jobs. They have lost pensions. They have lost much of the safety net that used to make these losses less frightening. They see a future for their kids even worse than their precarious present....
"For the people who saw security and status as their birthright – and that means white men most of all – these losses are unbearable....
"Neo-fascist responses to rampant insecurity and inequality are not going to go away. But what we know from the 1930s is that what it takes to do battle with fascism is a real left....
"People have a right to be angry, and a powerful, intersectional left agenda can direct that anger where it belongs, while fighting for holistic solutions that will bring a frayed society together...."
"It was the Democrats' embrace of neoliberalism that won it for Trump." By Naomi Klein. The Guardian, November 9, 2016
[Below] Now that the pundits—and the Democratic Party establishment—have begun to comprehend why so many of the white working class turned to Trump, it's useful to look at what those who have been trying to get us to pay attention were saying BEFORE the election.
The first link below is a review of nine (9) recent books (some very good, at least one not useful) dealing with "the decline of the white working class and the rise of the Tea Party and Donald Trump."
The value of the article is in Kuttner's discussion and summary of the authors' approaches and arguments. There's much to learn from these reviews alone -- and one or more of the books will be well worth your time, for the sake of future elections.
"Hidden Injuries of Class, Race, and Culture." By Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect, October 3, 2016
[Below] "Yes, people who read articles about politics—you and I—tend to pick our candidates based on the policies they trumpet. That’s reasonable because the point of governance is to adopt and enforce a set of policies. But you and I are not average voters.
"Average nonpolitical citizens don’t focus on a laundry list of issues. In fact, they know extremely little about the facts of public issues, who in government is responsible, or the process of enacting and implementing legislation....
"Rather, when average Americans are considering political candidates, there is one overriding (but vague) question in their minds: 'Who is on my side....'
"Usually, the most important factor to a voter is the group with which s/he identifies. Americans are most often not searching for a candidate who agrees with their issue positions, they’re looking for someone who represents their group...."
"Group identification, rather than policy, explains the 2016 election." Public Leadership Institute, June 22, 2016
"Three reasons why voters are ignorant of political facts." By Bernie Horn, Public Leadership Institute, May 14, 2015
"A Golden Opportunity to Strengthen the 'Progressive' Brand." By Bernie Horn, Public Leadership Institute, April 15, 2015
"Promote 'fair markets,' not 'free markets.'" By Bernie Horn, Public Leadership Institute, March 09, 2015
"There's no such thing as 'free' markets." By Bernie Horn, Public Leadership Institute, March 01, 2015
[Below] "...But I also suspect that conservatives have a deep psychological problem with modern monetary systems.
"You see, in the conservative worldview, markets aren’t just a useful way to organize the economy; they’re a moral structure: People get paid what they deserve, and what goods cost is what they are truly worth to society. You could say that to the free-market true believer, to know the price of everything is also to know the value of everything.
"Modern money — consisting of pieces of paper or their digital equivalent that are issued by the Fed, not created by the heroic efforts of entrepreneurs — is an affront to that worldview...."
"Money Makes Crazy." By Paul Krugman, NYT, February 13, 2015
"The Science of Political Persuasion - Part Two." By Bernie Horn, Public Leadership Institute, February 08, 2015
"The Science of Political Persuasion - Part One." By Bernie Horn, Public Leadership Institute, January 31, 2015.
(A podcast of the above two articles with audio and slides is here.)
"Let's be clear: It's the 'Republican Congress.'" By Bernie Horn, Progressive Majority Action Fund, January 11, 2015
"When progressives cry 'freedom,' what does it mean?" By Bernie Horn, Public Leadership Institute, December 09, 2014
[Below] "It is time to shine a light on the perpetually losing strategies used by Democrats, and particularly on the Democratic infrastructure that promotes those strategies."
"Democratic Strategies Lost Big. Here’s Why and How to Fix It." By George Lakoff, November 13, 2014
[Below] "...A large body of political scientists and political psychologists now concur that liberals and conservatives disagree about politics in part because they are different people at the level of personality, psychology, and even traits like physiology and genetics.
"That's a big deal. It challenges everything that we thought we knew about politics—upending the idea that we get our beliefs solely from our upbringing, from our friends and families, from our personal economic interests, and calling into question the notion that in politics, we can really change (most of us, anyway).
"The occasion of this revelation is a paper by John Hibbing of the University of Nebraska and his colleagues, arguing that political conservatives have a 'negativity bias,' meaning that they are physiologically more attuned to negative (threatening, disgusting) stimuli in their environments....
"In other words, the conservative ideology, and especially one of its major facets—centered on a strong military, tough law enforcement, resistance to immigration, widespread availability of guns—would seem well tailored for an underlying, threat-oriented biology....
"All of this matters, of course, because we still operate in politics and in media as if minds can be changed by the best honed arguments, the most compelling facts. And yet if our political opponents are simply perceiving the world differently, that idea starts to crumble. Out of the rubble just might arise a better way of acting in politics that leads to less dysfunction and less gridlock…thanks to science."
"Scientists Discover the Fascinating Psychological Reason Why Conservatives Are...Conservative." By Chris Mooney, July 16, 2014
The above article reinforces what has already been pointed out to us about conservatives: We can't change them—it's a waste of resources to try. But it also reinforces what Lakoff has said about "biconceptuals" (who we refer to as "independents" or "persuadables"): With regard to some matters, they're progressive, and with regard to others, they're conservative. We must appeal to their progressive side; and we do it by evoking or awakening those progressive values, making them consciously aware that they hold those values. We do it by talking about values.
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[Below] "Beyond material power, the president has even greater power -- cognitive power -- and he hasn't used it much. Cognitive power is the power to put important ideas in people's minds by shaping public discourse. He has the unique power to change how America thinks simply by discussing crucial ideas over and over."
"SOTU 2014: The Cognitive Power of the President." By George Lakoff, Reader Supported News, January 27, 2014
[Below] "Every language in the world has a way in its grammar to express direct causation: a local application of force that has a local effect in place and time....
"No language in the world has a way in its grammar to express systemic causation....
"From infanthood on we experience simple, direct causation. We see direct causation all around us: if we push a toy, it topples over; if our mother turns a knob on the oven, flames emerge. And so on. The same is not true of systemic causation. Systemic causation cannot be experienced directly. It has to be learned, its cases studied, and repeated communication is necessary before it can be widely understood."
"Systemic Causation and Syria: Obama's Framing Problem." By George Lakoff, Reader Supported News, September 13, 2013
[Below] Lakoff examines President Obama's State of the Union speech as an example of framing -- progressive framing (my bold type):
"This turn in discourse started working last year. Empathy and social responsibility as central American values reappeared in spades in the 2012 campaign right after Mitt Romney made his 47 percent gaff, that 47 percent of Americans were not succeeding because they were not talking personal responsibility for their lives. This allowed Obama to reframe people out of work, sick, injured, or retired as hard working and responsible and very much part of the American ideal, evoking empathy for them from most other Americans. It allowed him to meld the hard working and struggling Americans with the hard working and just getting by Americans into a progressive stereotype of hard working Americans in general who need help to overcome external forces holding them back. It is a patriotic stereotype that joins economic opportunity with equality, freedom and civil rights: 'if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love.'
"It is an all-American vision:
"'It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation.'"
"Speaking Out Is at the Heart of Being a Citizen." By George Lakoff, Reader Supported News, February 16, 2013
"What's Still the Matter With Kansas - and the Democrats?" By Ira Chernus, Truthout | Op-Ed, October 29, 2012
[Below] "The astute observer will already note the profound irony here — a political group whose ideology elevates the individual over the group (Conservatives) has managed to cultivate more group cohesion than the political group whose ideology blends community well-being with that of the individual.""The REAL reason conservatives always win." by Joe Brewer, June 24, 2012
[Below] Suggestions on words that we should NOT allow the Right to claim:
"Words Matter: Why Go Right When the Right is Wrong?" By Steven Jonas, May 11, 2012
[Below] Storytelling can be used to deceive as well as to make a point. As the second link below notes, "...the more absorbed readers are in a story, the more the story changes them. Highly absorbed readers also detected significantly fewer 'false notes' in stories--inaccuracies, missteps--than less transported readers. Importantly, it is not just that highly absorbed readers detected the false notes and didn’t care about them (as when we watch a pleasurably idiotic action film). They were unable to detect the false notes in the first place...."
"Are We Storytelling Animals?" By Erika Rydberg on May 9, 2012
The following is linked in the above article:
"Why Storytelling Is The Ultimate Weapon." By Jonathan Gottschall
[Below] Why would people deceive themselves? The studies cited in this article help us to understand why it's almost impossible to reach committed authoritarians with "facts."
"...'highly authoritarian individuals, when threatened, attempt to reduce anxiety by selectively exposing themselves to attitude-validating information, which leads to ‘stronger’ opinions that are more resistant to attitude change....'
"Authoritarians...'maintain their beliefs against challenges by limiting their experiences, and surrounding themselves with sources of information that will tell them they are right.'"
"The Science of Fox News: Why Its Viewers are the Most Misinformed." By Chris Mooney, AlterNet, April 8, 2012
[Below] This describes the "message" problem that has plagued the White House and Democrats generally from the beginning of President Obama's administration, and it continues with the reelection campaign.
There's nothing new about it. Valuesmessage.org was started in recognition of progressives' seeming lack of recognition of the importance of conveying our values, which, even after the election and early successes of the Obama administration, resulted in the November 2010 election losses.
Because the POLITICO article extends over several web pages, the entire article has been assembled into this single PDF document (which includes the link to POLITICO), which you may mark up with tools in Adobe Reader.
"Obama: A brand in search of a slogan." By Donovan Slack, POLITICO, April 7, 2012 
[Below] "Republicans have morality upside down. Santorum, Gingrich, and even Romney are barnstorming across the land condemning gay marriage, abortion, out-of-wedlock births, access to contraception, and the wall separating church and state.
"But America’s problem isn’t a breakdown in private morality. It’s a breakdown in public morality. What Americans do in their bedrooms is their own business. What corporate executives and Wall Street financiers do in boardrooms and executive suites affects all of us....
"Political scientist James Q. Wilson, who died last week, noted that a broken window left unattended signals that no one cares if windows are broken. It becomes an ongoing invitation to throw more stones at more windows, ultimately undermining moral standards of the entire community.
"The windows Wall Street broke in the years leading up to the crash of 2008 remain broken...."
"The Difference Between Private and Public Morality." By Robert Reich, March 13, 2012
[Below] "The Santorum Strategy is not just about Santorum. It is about pounding the most radical conservative ideas into the public mind by constant repetition during the Republican presidential campaign, whether by Santorum himself, by Gingrich or Ron Paul, by an intimidated Romney, or by the Republican House majority. The Republican presidential campaign is about a lot more than the campaign for the presidency. It is about guaranteeing a radical conservative future for America....
"...No matter who gets the Republican nomination for president, the Santorum Strategy will have succeeded unless Democrats dramatically change their communication strategy as soon as possible....
"The Santorum Strategy." By George Lakoff, March 12, 2012
[Below] There are strong words about "environmental" action (or lack of it) here and some specific, basic advice on movement-building:
"Instead of funding community-based groups to generate ideas, strategies and political support for transformative change, environmental donors have thrown their weight behind narrow lobbying campaigns in Washington, D.C. -- for example, the failed inside-the-beltway campaign in 2009-2010 to pass 'cap and trade' legislation to curb global warming. For their part, mainstream environmental groups hang pleas for environmental change on the apolitical hook of rational appeals, expecting that decision-makers confronted with powerful evidence will do the right thing. But this strategy has not worked because 'a vocal, organized, sustained grassroots base is vital to achieving sustained change....'
"'In movements throughout history, the core of leadership came from a nucleus of directly impacted or oppressed communities while also engaging a much broader range of justice-seeking supporters.' In other words, successful movements for social change -- anti-slavery, women's suffrage, labor rights, and civil rights -- have always been inspired, energized, and led by those most directly affected. Yet these are the very groups within the environmental movement that are starved for funds."
"Why the Environmental Movement Is Not Winning." By Peter Montague, AlterNet | News Analysis, March 4, 2012
[Below] The words matter. Here's the message and the way to spread it, to start winning the climate change battle:
"Reframing Climate Change Now." By Susan C. Strong, March 2, 2012
[Below] "Americans oppose regulating business—until you get down to the specifics."
"Our Anti-Government Hypocrisy." By Harold Meyerson, February 28, 2012
[Below] "An observer of the right-wing phenomenon must explain the paradox of followers who would escape from freedom even as they incessantly invoke the word freedom as if it were a mantra. But freedom so defined does not mean ordinary civil liberties like the prohibition of illegal government search and seizure, the right of due process, or the right not to be tortured. The hard right has never protested the de facto abrogation of much of the Bill of Rights during the last decade. In the right-wing id, freedom is the emotional release that a hostile and psychologically repressed person feels when he is finally able to lash out at the objects of his resentment. Freedom is his prerogative to rid himself of people who are different, or who unsettle him. Freedom is merging into a like-minded herd. Right-wing alchemy transforms freedom into authoritarianism."
"The Right-Wing Id Unzipped." By Mike Lofgren, Truthout|News Analysis, February 14, 2012
[Below] If history doesn't fit your ideology, re-write history.
"The Right's Inside-Out Constitution." By Robert Parry, Consortium News, February 14, 2012
[Below] Have we looked in the mirror today?
"Self-deprecating, too liberal for their own good, today's progressives stand back and watch, hands over their mouths, as the social vivisectionists of the right slice up a living society to see if its component parts can survive in isolation. Tied up in knots of reticence and self-doubt, they will not shout stop. Doing so requires an act of interruption, of presumption, for which they no longer possess a vocabulary."
"The right's stupidity spreads, enabled by a too-polite left." By George Monbiot, guardian.co.uk, February 6, 2012
[Below] "Ignore the media spin. Wages and working conditions -- not skills -- are the real reasons jobs get outsourced."
"The 'education crisis' myth." By David Sirota, Jan 30, 2012
[Below] Here's an imaginative technique for turning a critical issue into a narrative, a morality tale -- the kind of telling that is more likely to reach people who might not have the patience (or interest) for an essay or polemic.
"Four Psychologists at the Gates of Hell: A Fable for Our Time." By Roy Eidelson, Truthout|Fable, January 29, 2012
[Below] "How does one learn nonviolent resistance? The same way that Martin Luther King Jr. did -- by study, reading and interrogating seasoned tutors. King would eventually become the person most responsible for advancing and popularizing Gandhi’s ideas in the United States, by persuading black Americans to adapt the strategies used against British imperialism in India to their own struggles. Yet he was not the first to bring this knowledge from the subcontinent....
"In commemorating Dr. King’s birthday, it is worth remembering that everyone can learn nonviolent action as he did. King may not have invented the nonviolent strategies that he advanced, but he was an apt student, and his understanding of them would in the decades to come encourage other movements on the world stage.... How he himself learned the theory and practice of civil resistance is a reminder to each of us that these methods are neither intuitive nor spontaneous; they’re a system of logic, skills and techniques that must be learned."
"How to Learn Nonviolent Resistance as King Did." By Mary Elizabeth King, Nation of Change, January 15, 2012
[Below] A political myth is created by repetition of two simple words: "job creators."
"Rhetoric aside, since when do businesses care about job creation?" By Henry Banta, January 11, 2012
[Below] "...policy proposals can produce counter-productive results when officials fail to follow the simple predicates of causal sequencing – what we call causal chains – in communications.
"How to Win the Public on Policy Change: The Need for Causal Chains." By Frank Gilliam, January 11, 2012
[Below] "...people's actions are shaped by what they believe, and what they believe is shaped by words....
"From 'death tax' to 'job creators,' the public has been saturated with prefabricated words and phrases that reshape the thinking of millions of people in an Orwellian way....
"If we want to take control of our own lives, we'll need to keep taking control of our language."
"2011: The Year of Resistance to Conservatism's 'War of the Words.'" by Richard (RJ) Eskow, January 1, 2012
[Below] "Unfortunately, Luntz is still ahead of most progressives responding to him. Progressives need to learn how framing works. Bashing Luntz, bashing Fox News, bashing the right-wing pundits and leaders using their frames and arguing against their positions just keeps their frames in play.
"Progressives have a basic morality, which is largely unspoken. It has to be spoken, over and over, in every corner of our country...."
"Words That Don't Work: Frank Luntz's Trap for Progressives." By George Lakoff, Truthout | Op-Ed, December 7, 2011
[Below] In an extension of The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein's current insight is into climate change denial -- not why the gullible and easily-misled deny the role of human actions in climate change, but why those who fund the denial campaigns certainly know better but push climate-change denial for ideological reasons. It has nothing to do with doubts about the science, although that’s the necessary excuse. Klein’s analysis challenges our long-term strategies in ways that no one else has been talking about, and she lays out specific remedies -- with enormous implications. The Right has already recognized those implications, which is why they’re denying climate change so vehemently.
"Capitalism vs. the Climate." By Naomi Klein, November 9, 2011
[Below] What successful messaging looks like...for the Right:
"How the Austerity Class Rules Washington." By Ari Berman, The Nation, November 7, 2011 issue
[Below] Bill Moyers chronicles how we got to the present condition, as only he can.
"How Wall Street Occupied America." By Bill Moyers, The Nation, November 2, 2011
[Below] "...the left must realize that when progressives achieved success in the past, whether at organizing unions or fighting for equal rights, they seldom bet their future on politicians. They fashioned their own institutions — unions, women's groups, community and immigrant centers and a witty, anti-authoritarian press — in which they spoke up for themselves and for the interests of wage-earning Americans.
"Today, such institutions are either absent or reeling...."
"Whatever Happened to the American Left?" By Michael Kazin, September 24, 2011
How Obama Got It Right." By George Lakoff and Glenn W. Smith, September 9, 2011 (Transcript of President Obama's "jobs" speech)
[Below] "...an 'unchanging, all embracing...unitary inner vision....' There is a world of difference between having a vision and adopting the other side's vision and trying to mitigate the damage from it.... ...a time for boldness and not small fixes...."
"Why America Is Deeply in Need of a Good Hedgehog." By Arianna Huffington, August 17, 2011
"What Happened to Obama?" By Drew Westen, The New York Times, August 7, 2011
[Below] "...one of the most robust but amazingly under-appreciated findings in American political science: independents are not independent. That is, the overwhelming majority of Americans who say [they] are 'independent' lean toward one party or the other. Call them IINOs (Independents In Name Only). IINOs who say they lean toward the Republicans think and vote just like regular Republicans. IINOs who say they lean toward the Democrats think and vote just like regular Democrats.
"Right now, according to Pew data, IINOs are 68 percent of independents, split 36/32 between Republican-leaners and Democratic-leaners, respectively. That leaves less than a third of independents who might really qualify as independent. This figure, in turn, translates into just 13 to 14 percent of adults, and inevitably a lower percentage of actual voters, since pure independents have notoriously low turnout. In 2008, according to the University of Michigan National Election Study, pure independents were only 7 percent of voters."
"Obama's Unhealthy Obsession With Independents." By Ruy Teixeira, August 3, 2011 [also posted under "Polling"]
"Lakoff: How to Rescue the American Dream from the GOP's Nightmare." By George Lakoff, July 28, 2011
"Why Voters Tune Out Democrats." By Stanley B. Greenberg, July 30, 2011
"A Creditable Left." By Richard Sennett, July 11, 2011 (or archived here)
[Below] "Finally, no matter how independents vote in the 2012 presidential election, their preferences will not necessarily determine the winner. If the election is close, it is entirely possible that the candidate chosen by most independents will lose the overall popular vote.
"Based on the national exit polls, that's what happened in each of the last three presidential elections that were decided by a margin of less than five points....
"In a close election, a candidate with an energized and unified party base can sometimes overcome a deficit among independent voters. That doesn't mean the candidates should ignore independents, but it does mean that unifying and energizing their own party's base is just as important as appealing to the independents."
"Setting the Record Straight: Correcting Myths About Independent Voters." By Alan I. Abramowitz, Senior Columnist, July 7, 2011 [also posted under "Polling"]
"14 Propaganda Techniques Fox 'News' Uses to Brainwash Americans." By Cynthia Boaz, July 2, 2011
"Three Ways Democrats Could Choose to Lose in 2012, and What They Can Do to Avoid It." By Drew Westen, June 26, 2011
[Below] "What we have witnessed in the last several months is a phenomenon described in a classic book nearly 20 years ago by the political scientist John Zaller. What Zaller discovered is that public opinion tends to follow the lead of party leaders and pundits, as partisans turn to their own leaders and trusted sources for cues on what they should think and feel about the central questions of the day. Normally, when the two sides offer competing views, the 40-45 percent of voters on each side follow the lead of the "opinion leaders" on their side of the aisle.
"But when leaders on one side are voicing a strong opinion -- in this case, the Republicans arguing that the sky is falling on the economy because of deficits, tax and spend liberalism, and over-regulation of business -- and the other side is either silent or echoing GOP talking points -- the average voter hears what sounds like a consensus and starts to mouth it.
"Then pollsters start to pick up in their polls precisely the view they have been promulgating and elites have been putting into the minds and mouths of ordinary citizens, rendering elected officials all the more afraid of bucking what is now the conventional wisdom. And the result is a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"The 3 Wings of the Republican Party: The Crazies, the Corporatists ... and Democrats." By Drew Westen, June 20, 2011 [also posted under "Polling"]
The cultural and psychological "building blocks" for democratic movements: "...individual self-respect and collective self-confidence....":
"10 Steps to Defeat the Corptocracy." By Bruce E. Levine, May 20, 2011
[Below] To effectively target voters, it's worth our time (and that of our candidates) to try to comprehend how (a) demographics and economic circumstances are correlated to (b) the range and combinations of opinions among the political "typologies" found by the Pew Research Center. (The last Pew typologies report was in 2005, so this kind of comprehensive study isn't available often.)
This report is based on opinions on a wide range of issues, and those can provide some insights. But it remains for us to look for the values that underlie those opinions. Some candidates may look at the report, note the differences of opinion on particular issues AMONG Democrats and AMONG Democratic-leaning Independents, then try to avoid talking about those issues for fear of alienating ANY voters. That would be a seriously wrong conclusion, as the materials in valuesmessage.org make clear.
(Be sure to take the QUIZ linked on the page below, to see where YOU fit in the typologies. Then ask yourself WHY you hold those opinions -- what values explain the way you feel.)
"Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology." Pew Research Center for the People & the Press; Released May 4, 2011
"Reclaiming the Politics of Freedom." By Corey Robin, The Nation, April 6, 2011
"Obama Returns to His Moral Vision: Democrats Read Carefully!" By George Lakoff, April 18, 2011
"The Dems' Tepid Approach to What's at Stake in Wisc. Is Helping Conservatives Destroy Unions, Defund the Democratic Party and Take over the Country." By George Lakoff, February 26, 2011
"What Conservatives Really Want." By George Lakoff, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed, February 19, 2011
"A Message for Progressives: It's time we started growing the economy and stopped shrinking the middle class." By Drew Westen, The American Prospect, February 16, 2011
Framing "Our American Budget." By Susan C. Strong, The Metaphor Project
"The New Obama Narrative." By George Lakoff, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis, January 28, 2011
"The 'New Centrism' and Its Discontents." By George Lakoff, January 25, 2011
"Responding to the Conservative Propaganda Machine." by: Joe Brewer, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed, January 2, 2011
"Vision -- How You Can Use 'SmartMemes' to Win Campaigns, Build Movements, and Change the World." By Patrick Reinsborough and Doyle Canning, December 25, 2010
"New Report Exposes Media Love Affair with Right-Wingers and the Fox News Worldview: 'Reporters Can't get Enough.'" By Joshua Holland, December 25, 2010
"The Humbug Express." By PAUL KRUGMAN, December 23, 2010
"Driving Large-Scale Behavior Change in Politics." By Joe Brewer, Cognitive Policy Works, December 20, 2010
"'Democrat' Is No Longer A Brand." By Howard Fineman, December 15, 2010
"Untellable Truths." By George Lakoff, December 10, 2010
"Why the Tax Deal Confirms the Republican Worldview." By Robert Reich, December 8, 2010
"You've Got Them All Wrong, Mr. President: Obama's misguided view of the independent voter." By John B. Judis, November 18, 2010
"Could We Have Predicted What Happened Last Tuesday?" By Drew Westen, November 8, 2010
"After the Midterms: Why Democrats Move to the Center, and Republicans Don't." By Robert Reich, October 25, 2010
"Where Do Anti-Government Ideas Come From?" By Joe Brewer, October 20, 2010
"Building the Progressive Brand." By Sara Robinson, October 10, 2010
"Why the Democrat's Response to the Pledge Has Been Inadequate." By George Lakoff, September 27, 2010
"Three Fundamental Differences Between Progressives and Conservatives, Pt. 4." By Terrance Heath, September 14, 2010
"This Fall's Election Is Not About Policies and Programs: It's About Right and Wrong." By Robert Creamer, September 6, 2010
"The Cry for Democratic Moral Leadership and Effective Communication." By George Lakoff, September 2, 2010
"What Created the Populist Explosion and How Democrats Can Avoid the Shrapnel in November." By Drew Westen, September 1, 2010
"American Opinion: Rebuild America, Don't Sack It." By Robert Borosage, August 12, 2010
"Disaster Messaging." By George Lakoff, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed, July 8, 2010
"Nine Keys to Democratic Success in the Midterms." By Robert Creamer, August 5, 2010
"A Politics that Works in the 21st Century." By Joe Brewer, Cognitive Policy Works, March 13, 2009
[Below] The extraordinarily insightful "Two Santa Clauses..." piece was published at the beginning of the Obama administration. Despite its hopeful tone, Democrats who set policy still failed to comprehend GOP strategy and continue to have our messages (whatever they are) overrun by the "supply-side" myth.
"Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years." By Thom Hartmann, January 26, 2009
"What Obama Can't Do for the Progressive Movement." By Joe Brewer and Evan Frisch, t r u t h o u t | Perspective, April 30, 2008
"Story Time: The Lost Art of Democratic Narrative." By Robert Reich, The New Republic, March 28, 2005. (This article is not easily found online, so copies in two formats are archived on this site: reformatted magazine image )
Revised 11/16/2016