Word is that Congress will receive President Obama’s budget in early February. But it’s already in trouble, given the Rights’ latest hostage game—stopping U.S. default-prevention, unless they get their cuts. How can progressives help to counter this? The first step is framing the problem in a way Americans can get. To begin with, “the federal” budget […]

Although the Right claims their recent win justifies downsizing government etc., etc., everyone now knows they just plan to stop Obama.  Anything else they said is just a big con.  But it’s an “American” con. We progressives need to understand this much better over the next two years. Very often when the public votes the way […]

Today the phrase, ‘the American dream,’ still means getting a house in the suburbs, holding down a well-paid job we like doing, and having enough money to buy whatever we want. Of course, ‘the American dream’ defined this way is looking more dead every day. Too many Americans are still unemployed or cannot get new […]

Right now the biggest game on Capitol Hill is the financial reform bill. Although the outcome is still far from sure, the Democrats are finally getting their narrative on this topic right, moving into American ‘punch back fighter’ mode. They’re countering Republican and Chamber of Commerce propaganda immediately.  They’re ‘stepping up to the plate’ and demanding […]

Making a breakthrough is an important piece of the ideal American story. Just before Representative Dennis Kucinich voted for the recent health insurance reform bill, he told Esquire.com (esquire.com/the-side/qa/dennis-kucinich-health-care-bill-032210) about the breakthrough that led him to do it.  Hope for future health care reform bills revived because of it.  Now, lined up on the political […]

In December, 2009, President Obama said, “the buck stops with me,” when the Homeland Security Department he inherited from Bush & Co. failed to prevent the Christmas bomber’s attempt. But the four alarm mess the Bushies dumped on Obama and the rest of us, including the badly pasted together Homeland Security Department, is not a […]

Right now, in the light of President-elect Barack Obama’s historic victory, almost everyone on the left is focused on what new and good things our government might do in the next four years. Policy proposals are multiplying geometrically, laid out in page after page of abstract, jargon-laden detail. The primary audience for these messages is […]

Two words. Three. Sometimes four or five at the most. Smart, punchy ones that ‘got rhythm.’ Phrases that grab attention, tell a quick story, sound kind of familiar. Today, friends, that’s what it’s really going to take to save the world, our ecosphere here on planet earth, and our country. If it’s ever going to […]

Dear MP Network, Back in February of 2005, I sent you a post, already published on Common Dreams, called ‘The One Big Family Frame.‘  It began this way: ‘As the Bush Administration finishes setting forth its alarming vision for America, we must lay out our own ‘big vision’ story. But a vital piece of that […]

Friends, we are in one of the biggest framing crises since 911. The President calls the UAE port management deal business/free trade as usual. But there’s a threat behind the administration’s rhetoric too– you don’t want to be seen as anti-Arab/Muslim, do you? This is a serious, far-reaching trap for all opponents to this deal. […]